Glitches in Time
by A Karswyll
Summary: Danny, Sam, Tucker, Valerie, Dash, Paulina, Kwan and Star all find themselves trapped within the Ghost-Zone. There they meet two future Phantoms who take them to Clockwork—and the rest as they say is chaos.
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: Glitches in Time  
**Author**: A. Karswyll  
**Summary**: Danny, Sam, Tucker, Valerie, Dash, Paulina, Kwan and Star all find themselves trapped within the Ghost-Zone. There they meet two future Phantoms who take them to Clockwork—and the rest as they say is chaos.  
**Setting**: The most accurate place in the timeline is just after 2.28-29 _The Ultimate Enemy_ and before 2.30 _The Fright Before Christmas_.  
**Episodes**: 1.06 _What You Want_, 1.08 _Prisoners of Love_, 1.20 _Control Freaks_, 2.24-25 _Reign Storm  
_**Characters**: Dashiel "Dash" Baxter, The Box Ghost, Clockwork, Daniel "Danny" Fenton, Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton, Tucker Folley, Valerie Gray, Kwan, Samantha "Sam" Mason, Vlad Masters, Ember McLain, Paulina, Walker, Skulker, and Star.  
**Disclaimer**: "Danny Phantom" and all Related Logos, Titles, and Characters are Trademarks of Viacom International Inc. ©2003, 2004 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Original Characters and Plot are the Property of the Author. The Author is in no way Associated with the Owners, Creators, or Producers of Viacom International Inc.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

"Pass me another glob of sealant," Sam held out a sticky hand.

Danny—who was glaring at a certain football player sitting in the kitchen who could be seen from his spot in the living room—obediently passed the requested butter-knife covered object over.

Sam glanced with amusement at her glowering friend as she smeared the sealant onto their group History project.

"That's enough," Valerie said to the Goth as she began placing flake like pieces of cement, their imitation stone, along the curtain wall they were constructing.

"Can I get some over here?" Tucker said indicating one of the complete inner towers, a cone covered in toothpicks to imitate thatching in one hand.

Obediently Sam spread more sealant atop the cylinder form and inside the roof to insure that it stuck.

"I'm rather surprise at how well this is turning out," Valerie commented pleasantly as she continued to set stones into their place.

"Yeah and this is definitely easier to construct then Buckingham Palace(1)," Sam responded, glaring at Tucker who had suggested the idea.

"Hey, it was only an idea!" Tucker protested as he glued more toothpicks onto paper roofs to be put on later.

"Where'd you get the blueprint?" Valerie asked curiously, having seen the one of the English royal palace that Tucker had first found for them and other sequential ones before deciding on this one.

"On the net," Tucker answered, causing the three others to roll their eyes in exasperation. It was a typical Tucker answer.

"Where on the net?" Valerie said with a learned patience when dealing with the African-American and anything technological.

"Some site called www-dot-britaniaexpress-dot-com," Tucker answered, cursing as he shook his hand to attempt to rid himself of the glue covered toothpicks that had adhered themselves to his fingers.

Sam snickered as Valerie ducked her head in an attempt to hide her own amused smile.

"So why'd you pick the Tower of London anyway?" Valerie asked, knowing that the project description required them to not only construct a historical building, but know about its background as well.

"Beyond the fact that for centuries it was the main prison for the English nobility?" Danny said dryly as he continued to glare at Dash who was being tutored by his sister.

"Yes," Valerie responded just as dryly.

"It's reportedly the most haunted building in England," Tucker answered, the reason in the end that he and Sam had decided upon it as their choice. It had double meaning to both Danny and Valerie.

"No the cities of York and Derby in England are also reputed to be centers of ghost manifestations," Danny corrected absently, still glaring at the quarterback being tutored by Jazz.

"How'd you know that Danny?" Valerie asked curiously, she herself like Tucker thought that the Tower was the most haunted building in England—after all it was a prison.

"Must I remind you who my parents are?" Danny muttered darkly, still not looking from the kitchen.

"It's got the most well know ghosts though," Sam clarified.

"Like who?" Valerie asked with great curiosity.

"Well there's the headless ghost of Anne Boleyn, one of King Henry the VIII's wives, Lady Jane Grey and a lady in morning with no face, the alleged White Lady." Sam answered, earning herself a strange look from Valerie. The girl had not known that the Goth apparently knew so much about the creatures she herself hunted.

"Hey, you pick up a lot hanging around the Fentons," Sam said defensively, dropping her violet gaze from Valerie's inquisitive green one.

"There's also the ghost of Thomas Becket, who is said to have appeared during the construction of the Traitor's Gate," Danny added, finally looking at his two close friends and tentative third. "And the ghosts of King Edward the V and Richard, Duke of York, the so called 'Princes in the Tower,' and then there's the ghost of Sir Walter Raleigh."

"Don't forget that troupe of ghosts that re-enact the execution of Margaret Pole the VIII Countess of Salisbury," Sam chimed in.

"Yeah her too, and then there's the troops of phantom soldiers that also reportedly appear within the Tower." Danny concluded.

"That's odd you know," Tucker muttered, fixing another roof to their project.

"What is?" Sam questioned.

"How you know all the girls and Danny knows all of the guys," Tucker answered looking between the two.

Sam gave a toss of her head, "I'm a girl, what else would I be interested in?"

Tucker declined to answer that, having learned from painful experience when it was best to retreat.

Danny snickered at his techno friend's wary expression, a snicker that turned into a gasp of dismay when a wisp of white mist slipped from his mouth.

"Danny, you okay?" Valerie asked in concern, having seen his expression turn from humour to dismayed worry.

"Nothing," Danny answered quickly, hiding his nervousness from the ghost-hunter successfully but not his friends who knew him better. "Just got to go to the bathroom."

Jumping to his feet he dashed through the kitchen archway, ignored the taunt Dash threw at him, and ran downstairs into the lab.

Jazz frowned as her brother raced by, what was that about? A flashing light from the corner of her eye caught her attention—the light on the kitchen appliances were blinking. The eldest Fenton child blinked herself. Uh-oh, since Danny kept setting it off, her parents had toned down the ghost warning system so that it would only go berserk if the ghost registered high on the Fenton Ecto-Examiner.

Glancing quickly around the room she noted the time on the clock with some relief, "Well look at the time! We're done for tonight Dash, time to pack up!"

Dash looked at Jasmine strangely, she had never finished any of their sessions on time before.

Jazz thought fast, wishing not for the first time that she was as quick as her brother at thinking up believable excuses on the fly, "I though you said you were going to a movie tonight with your friends?"

"Oh yeah," Dash nodded in remembrance, he had said that he would meet the gang at the Fentons to.

The doorbell chimed and Sam's voice could be heard calling from the living room that she would get it. They then heard her icy tones greet the three teenagers that stood on the doorstep.

"Well, looks like they're here!" Jazz exclaimed brightly, packing papers, pencils, erasers and English books away.

Just then the ghost system went wild, lights all over the house flickering as the alarm siren blasted though the air.

Jazz winced in dismay, mentally cursing the timing. Danny must have had to transformed to fight the ghost.

"What is that noise?" Paulina's accented voice could be heard asking disdainfully.

"Ghost!" Valerie shouted, instantly recognized the sound from when Pariah Dark had taken over Amity Park. Diving for her schoolbag she snatched up one of her ecto-blasters and raced to the Fenton's lab figuring that was where the activity would be. Sam and Tucker hard on her heels to hopefully prevent her from harming someone she should not.

Jazz groaned as first Valerie then Sam followed by Tucker ran through the kitchen and disappeared through the lab doorway. Could things get any worse? She sighed when she overheard the conversation between Kwan and Star who wanted to see what was going on—apparently things could. Darn her parents for having such an interesting reputation among the student body of Casper High.

* * *

**Footnotes**:

(1) Buckingham Palace: historical residence of the sovereigns of England.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Valerie, don't shoot!" Sam shouted, knocking the ecto-blaster from the girl's hand as the ghost-hunter pointed it at Phantom who was currently battling it out with another ghost.

"Why not?" Valerie snarled at the Gothic girl as they exchanged glares.

"The walls are designed to reflect ecto-blasts back!" Sam yelled angrily. "Shoot and miss and it will bounce back and hit **you!**"

Valerie blanched. Getting blasted by ectoplasm was no fun.

'_Why the heck did the Fenton's design the lab like that?_' She though angrily as she lowered the weapon. Without her ecto-blaster she couldn't fight the infamous Ghost-Boy or the ghost that he was currently fighting. The other ghost she was confident she could shoot at and hit, but the Ghost-Boy always manage to dodge most of her shots and she wasn't confident **she **could dodge the reflected beam.

Danny breathed a silent sigh of relief as Sam got Valerie to lower her ecto-blaster. He did not want to have to split his attention between this ghost and the girl ghost-hunter. Turning his full attention back to his opponent, he was only vaguely aware of others entering the lab as the battle continued.

The fight was intense but brief, his opponent tiring quickly and obviously having little battle experience. Grinning almost savagely in satisfaction, he sized the ghost's tail and swung him towards the swirling vortex of the open Ghost Portal.

Just as the ghost hit the green light and he let go, a brilliant flash of light filled the room. Washing away their vision and dragging them all into the darkness of unconsciousness.

. . .

Groggily Danny opened his eyes, the coldness of the air upon his torso and the delicious contrast of warm upon his legs. He blinked repeatedly, then realized that he was not looking at the steel ceiling of the lab, but the black and green landscape of the Ghost-Zone.

He jerked upright, shifting the body that lay across his legs. Looking down he blushed slightly upon realizing that it was **Sam** practically lying on top of him. Reaching down he lifted her up gently, slid out from beneath her and stood.

Glancing around he saw that it was not just them within the ghostly realm, but Tucker and Valerie as well as Dash with Paulina, Kwan and Star. He blinked at the forms of the last three. '_How did they get here?_' Oh wait, he remembered that some others had arrived in the lab just as he was tossing that blasted ghost into the portal.

"D-Danny?" Sam groaned, raising a head to her head as she pushed herself upright. "W-what happen…" she trailed of as her surroundings registered, "Let me make that a—what are we doing in the Ghost-Zone?"

"Beats me," Danny muttered reaching a hand down to pull her to her feet, glancing at Tucker who was also now stirring.

"Ah crud! The Ghost-Zone!" Valerie barked in disgust as she sat up and looked around.

"The what zone?" Paulina's lovely voice questioned faintly. Her vivid eyes widened as she looked at the sight of a purple door floating past in the air.

"Did someone get the name of that train?" Star asked groggily, surprising the trio that were unfamiliar with her oddities.

"I think you should be saying did anyone get the name of that **ghost** train." Kwan stated, lifting Star of his chest to set her on her feet before standing himself.

"The Ghost-Zone?" Star pouted in dismay, "Not again. Where's the conquering army?"

"Alright Fentonio, what the **Hell's** going on here!" Dash snarled as he glared at his favourite target and black haired classmate.

"Danny?" Valerie questioned in surprise, really taking note of who was with her. "How'd you get here? I thought you were in the bathroom!"

Before Danny could think up something, another thought struck the ghost-hunter.

"Where's that blasted Ghost-Boy!" Valerie shouted as she surged to her feet, looking around frantically as if she expected the ghost to pop out of nowhere.

"Phantom?" Paulina cooed, "He can rescue me!"

"This is the Ghost-Zone Valerie," Sam said drolly as she rolled her eyes at the Latin girl's actions, "Where do you think he could be?"

"Actually the important thing is not where Phantom is," Tucker interrupted as he looked among the mismatched group, "But how we're getting out of here."

Seven pairs of eyes swung about to look at Danny who took a half step back in nervous reaction. "What are you all looking at me for?"

"It's your parent's that are the ghost freaks Fentonio," Dash snarled.

"He's right you know," Tucker said, "Out of all of us you're the only one that really knows anything."

Valerie huffed, but kept her tongue in her cheek. She did not want any of them knowing about her other persona as a ghost-hunter, it was bad enough that her dad did.

"So, how do we get out of here?" Dash commanded.

Danny turned to look at the hexagonal portal that was set into a rock face behind them. The doors were sealed shut. "The Fenton Portal's closed."

"What?" Only Sam and Tucker were not the ones who shouted in an outraged response.

Danny gestured to the portal, turning they all looked at the weird thing that they had last all seen set into the wall of the Fenton's lab. "That's the Fenton Portal. Someone's shut it."

"Well open it!" Dash yelled.

"I can't," Danny said shortly. "It can only be opened from within the lab."

"Then how do we get out of here?" Kwan questioned.

"We need to find another portal," Valerie mentally cursed herself for that slip, deliberately ignoring the strange looks from her former friends. It would not do at all for her to continuing being so knowledgeable about the Ghost-Zone.

"That's right. The only way out of here is if we find another one."

"Where?" Kwan asked, looking about at the barren landscape dotted only by rock formations and purple doors.

"The doors," Danny answered as he gestured towards them, "They open up to different dimensions. The trouble is finding the right one."

"Come on, lets get out of here," Dash said to his friends as he turned and began striding away.

"Where are you going?" Danny shouted after him.

The blonde quarterback looked back with disgust, "There's no way in hell I'm staying around you losers."

Sam and Tucker glowered at the backs of the popular foursome as they continued walking away, furious at the remark. Danny however was really worried. They had no experience what so ever in the Ghost-Zone beyond when the city had been claimed by Pariah Dark.

"Well see you later," Valerie said as she too began striding away in a different direction.

"Valerie!" Danny exclaimed in surprise, she'd been here, she knew how dangerous it was and she also was splitting the group up? "Where are you going?"

"Sorry, I work best alone." Valerie replied before she disappeared round a bend in the trail.

"**Shit!**" Danny cussed viciously. Sam and Tucker jumped in surprise, Danny **never **swore.

"Look at it this way Danny, there's less of a chance of them finding out." Sam attempted to point out reasonably. Flinching at the blue laser eyed glare Danny directed at her.

"This is the Ghost-Zone Sam, they know **nothing**."

"Well at least here we're the ghosts." Tucker reminded his friend.

Danny breathed deeply, attempting to calm his temper. Turning on his heel, he began striding away from the closed Fenton Portal, his two friends hurrying after him. "They don't know that though, so any ghost that comes across them… they'll think the threat is real."

Tucker had to conclude that point. "Well the only way we can help them is get them out of here right?"

"Yeah, point?"

"So all we have to do is find a portal, get back to your parent's lab, and then come after them with the Spectre Speeder."

"Yeah, and how long is it going to take us to find a portal?"

"Well we could ask for directions from someone."

"Like from who?" Sam asked as she gave Tucker a narrow look, remembering when they'd been searching for Danny in the Spectre Speeder, Tucker had suggested that and they'd end up being chased by that ghost dragon.

"Like from him," Tucker replied, pointing to the form ahead of them on the trail.

"Fine," Danny grumbled, "We'll go ask."

"Hey!" Danny called out, "Could you—crap Skulker!"

Sam and Tucker blanched as the person turned out to be the Ghost-Zone's Most Dangerous Hunter. Danny's eyes flared green moments before he transformed.

"Ah—Ghost-Child," Skulker greeted as he snapped a shot at the halfa, "Lovely day for a hunt isn't it?"

Danny dodged the blast easily, then cursed as he felt the ground beneath his feet crumble. Windmilling his arms about in an attempt to regain his balance, the heavy form of Skulker slammed into him. Sending both of them tumbling into the depths of the Ghost-Zone and vanished from sight.

"No!" Sam screamed as the two enemies disappeared. "Danny!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Danny!" Sam shouted for her childhood friend, anger warring with fear even in her voice as she looked at the eerily glowing green and black landscape of the Ghost-Zone for the ghost halfa.

"Still no sigh of him?" Tucker's disgruntled voice asked from behind her.

The gothic girl shook her head as she shouted once again, a call that was echoed by Tucker.

"I wouldn't worry Sam. After all Danny's dealt with Skulker before," the African-American boy finally said as they listened to the dying echoes of their shouts.

Sam shot a purely malicious look at the techno wiz, "Has he ever done it without the Fenton Thermos?"

Tucker's green eyes widened as his mouth formed a small 'O' of realization, Danny had never actually faced the "Ghost-Zone's Greatest Hunter" by himself before without the Thermos. "Let's keep looking."

Sam rolled her violet eyes in exasperation before tramping after him, "State the obvious will ya."

"Danny! Where are you!" Tucker called out as the two hopped from floating rock to floating rock.

"Look Sam," Tucker called out, pointing forward to a figure on the horizon, "I see someone up ahead, maybe it's Danny."

"That's what's got us in this mess in the first place, you saying we should go ask for directions from the person up ahead and having it turn out to be Skulker!" Sam growled with severe irritation.

"Come on Sam, don't worry so much. After all in the Ghost-Zone, it's us that are the ghosts. What harm can come of it?" Tucker said coaxingly.

"Fine," Sam muttered as she continued to follow him.

"Hey, it's Danny!" Tucker cried as he identified the white hair and silver and black hazmat suit the figure wore.

"Danny!" He called out, and exchanged looks with his Gothic companion when there was no response from their friend.

"Danny!" This time it was Sam who called the halfa's name, with still no response. As they approached they noticed that the sleeves had been torn from his hazmat suit and bandages wrapped around his lower arms. "Maybe something happened. It's like he's in a trance or something."

"Yo Danny!" Tucker said as he heavily clapped a hand on the figure's shoulder. "What happened to you?"

As the figure whirled about Tucker's gasp was cut off with a choking noise as the youth's silver staff was thrust against his neck and pressed painfully against his exposed throat. Glowing green eyes looked at him with hostile curiosity.

"Danny!" Sam cried out, scandalized by his behaviour before doing a double take.

The Phantom that stood before them was identical to their friend, in height, build and face. He also had the same white hair, glowing green eyes and similar silver and black hazmat suit. One major difference—the stylized 'D' that Sam had placed on Danny's chest after the incident with Desiree was gone. In its place was an 'S.'

The ghostly youth cocked his head to the side as he arched a pierce eyebrow at them, "Are you talking to me?"

"Sorry!" Tucker croaked, "Mistake!"

Other differences in the hazmat suit—the embellishment of belt straps, chains and belted pouches—registered for the two human friends.

"Who's calling my name?" A sweetly feminine voice questioned from behind them.

Turning their heads Sam and Tucker looked at the girl Phantom floating there that was almost identical to the boy who stood before them. She too had short white hair, green eyes; the black and silver hazmat suit more closely resembled Danny's but still had belts and pouches embellishing it, and carried a staff. Upon the breast of her suit was the expected 'D.'

"What?" Sam asked in confusion.

"My name," the girl Phantom replied as she tilted her head to the side, "Someone was shouting Danni."

"Ah sis, I don't think they were calling you," the ghost boy commented as he removed his staff from Tucker's larynx.

"You're right, I don't think they were," the Phantom girl agreed after a moment of consideration, floating over Sam and Tucker to hover at her brother's side.

"What are you two human's doing in the Ghost-Zone?" the boy asked with evident curiosity as the two ghosts and two humans eyed each other.

"Something happened to the Fenton Portal while—" Sam began.

"Did you say Fenton?" the ghost girl interrupted.

"Yes," Sam replied uneasily.

The two Phantoms exchanged speaking looks before looking back at the two humans. It was the girl ghost that asked the question though, "What are your names?"

"I'm Tucker Foley and this is Sam Manson." Tucker introduced.

Once again glances were exchanged between glowing green eyes as they said with once voice.

"**Crap**."

"They're not supposed to be here," the girl said fretfully as she plopped onto the ground, "Or **we're** not supposed to be here."

"Obviously," the boy muttered, irritated with his sister's redundant statement. "I just **knew** I shouldn't have gotten out of bed this morning."

"Wanna bet I know who's responsible for this?" the girl Phantom inquired casually.

"I don't bet against sure things," the boy grumbled, glaring at the two humans with frustration.

"Pity," the girl drawled as she once again began to float in the air. "Well it looks like the only thing we can do is get you guys home."

"You can get all of us home? How?" Sam questioned suspiciously, ghost were never this helpful without a reason.

"All? Just how many of there are you?" The boy Phantom asked as he too lifted from the ground in a hover.

"We'll there's myself, Tucker, Danny, and Valerie, as well as Dash, Paulina, Kwan and Star. But we don't know where they are right now." Sam reluctantly admitted.

The boy ghost growled—great, more work. Now they not only had to find the other humans of the group, get them back to their homes, but they also had to ensure that a certain Important Fact remained a secret so that his and his sister's own time remained unaffected.

"Of course we can get you all home," the ghost girl said as the two began drifting away, "Clockwork is the Master of Time after all."

"Wait! Clockwork? What does he have to do with this?" Sam demanded as she and Tucker began to follow the floating forms of the two Phantoms.

"Everything," the girl replied over her shoulder with a chuckle and grin, "We work for him."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Soon your pelt shall adorn my fireplace!" The trophy ghost-hunter cried out as the two grappling opponents finally landed, the younger ghost landing upon his back with the elder looming threateningly above him.

"Not this time Skulker," Danny rolled his green eyes as he raised a palm and blasted the infuriating ghost off him, "I've got better things to do!"

"Hah! What greater thing is there then your skull serving as my drinking cup!" The hunter retorted as the sound of metal sliding against metal was heard and his right arm began to reconfigure itself.

"Oh great, you got another upgrade." Danny muttered, warily eyeing the developing ectoplasmic gun.

"You like it?" Skulker said with a grin as he took aim, "I call this one Doom." Suddenly an electronic beep was heard and with an annoyed expression on his face Skulker looked at the PDA upon his left arm. Text began to appear on the small screen: Go to Library… Checkout Book on Purple-Back Gorilla.

"Again! Crap!" Skulker snarled with a pout as his jetpack deployed and activated, sending him flying off into the depth of the Ghost-Zone to vanish from sight.

Danny relaxed from his fighting stance as he gave a huff of relief, now all he had to do was get back to Sam and Tucker. Turning around he blinked at the four people standing before him. Dash, Paulina, Kawn and Star all stood there with equally stunned expressions on their faces.

"Ah—hi," Danny said uneasily, warily eyeing the foursome, in particular a blonde haired quarterback.

"Phantom!" Paulina's sultry voice cried out gleefully, "You came to rescue me!"

Danny blinked. He had forgotten for a moment that he was Phantom, not Fenton. Before he could answer however, his senses caught the approach of an ectoplasm blast and he flung himself to the side. The beam past by, narrowing missing his shoulder as he rolled on the rocky ground coming up in a crouch.

His ghostly green eyes widened as he looked at the scarlet clayed figure rising before him on a hover-board.(1) The pink beam of her main assault ecto-blaster square with his chest. Oh boy, he was in trouble now.

"Don't worry Ghost-Kid, it won't hurt long!" The ghost-hunter snarled as her finger squeezed the gun's trigger.

A green blade of light arched down, slashing through the charging ecto-gun.

With a gasp of surprise, the ghost-hunter looked to the side at the scythe-wheeling ghost that had just destroyed her main gun. The ghost-hunter was not the only one shocked at the sight of the two nearly identical ghost—the second wielding a scythe and standing before the first fallen one.

"Mind if I cut in?" the second Phantom taunted with an evil grin.

"There's two of you!" the ghost-hunter choked out angrily.

"Actually no," a feminine voice breathed evilly next to the hunter's ear, "there's more."

Another blade of green settled against the ghost-hunter's throat, she stared in horror out of the corner of her eye at the face of the third Phantom. The human ghost-hunter felt a hand close on the neck of her suit and moments later was yanked from her board and sent sailing through the air face-first to land with a vocal _oomph!_ upon the ground.

The spectacle was watched not only by Danny, Dash, Paulina, Kawn and Star, but by Sam and Tucker who had also arrived on the scene.

Scrambling to her feet, the ghost-hunter whirled to meet the physical attack of the female Phantom as the ghost flew at her, scythe with its glowing green blade raised high.

"No Ghost-Kids are going to beat me!" the scarlet dressed girl whipped out another weapon, "I don't care how many of you there are!"

The deadly expression on the Phantom's face did not change, the green blade arching downward to reflect the pink blast of ectoplasm harmlessly away as a ghostly foot contacted with the hunter's second ecto-gun, sending it spinning off into the Ghost-Zone.

A quick movement of the scythe's staff and the ghost-hunter's feet were knocked out from underneath her. Sending the human female tumbling backwards to land in an awkward sprawl upon her back.

The scythe raised once more as the Phantom hovered over the human's fallen form. The green blade shifted upwards so that the weapon now resembled a spear. The staff spun around in the ghost's hands, the deadly green blade now facing the terrified ghost-hunter.

A scream of pure terror was ripped from the human's throat as the spear descended towards her. Flinging her arms up in a reflective movement in a useless attempt to defend herself.

"No!" Danny roared, lunging forward in an attempt to intervene. Horrified screams and yells of denial also being ripped from the throats of the others. Sam and Tucker in particular for they knew the identity of the ghost-hunter.

But it was too late—the green blade touched scarlet cloth and the ghost-hunter's form was enveloped in crackling green energy. The light died and as it did so, in shock they watched as the ghost-hunter's outfit retracted, folding in on itself to reveal a definitely rattled—but still angry—Valerie.

"Valerie?" Four voices chorused as four pairs of eyes bulged, staring at their former friend. Danny, Sam and Tucker all exchanged looks. Just what was going on here? Had that girl Phantom really known what she had been doing or had it just been dumb luck?

"What'd you do?" Valerie demanded angrily as she looked at the Phantom that still loomed over her, the ghosts harsh expression shifting into a smirk as the ghost backed away, the blade of the scythe also diminishing till the weapon was merely a staff.

"I fried your suit," was the calm reply as the ghost girl moved toward the still constructed hover-board that lay on the ground. A ghostly heel came down hard on the end of the board, flipping it upwards like one would a skateboard.

Valerie glared at the female Phantom as she got to her feet, fuming about her identity being revealed to Dash, Paulina, Kawn and Star as well as Sam and Tucker.

"Here," the girl Phantom said as she picked up the hover-board and held it out to Valerie, "You have to carry this now."

A frustrated scream of rage emerged from Valerie's throat as she lunged forward, her temper breaking. "I'm going to kill you Ghost-Girl!"

The end of a staff bops the dark haired girl on the head, freezing her in mid-lunge as a mist of green envelops her.

"Hey," the second Phantom interrupts mildly, "no one beats up my sister but me."

"Awa," the girl Phantom says as her face breaks into a beautiful smile, "I love you too."

* * *

**Footnote**:

(1) This story takes place before "Flirting With Danger" so Valerie's hunting outfit has not been upgraded. The most accurate place in the timeline is just after "The Ultimate Enemy" and before "The Fright Before Christmas."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"Hold on a minute, what is going on here?" Danny demanded glaring at the two other versions of himself. He had taken note that Sam and Tucker had actually appeared on the scene shortly after the appearance of the first ghost in the company of the second one. And for him that raised quite a few questions for not only the two ghosts, but his two friends as well.

"Would you like the truth or a plausible lie?" The girl Phantom said as she examined her gloved left hand with sudden interest.

"The truth!" Danny exploded, glaring at the girl.

"I'm sorry," she answered looking up at him, "You don't have the security clearance for that."

A masculine snort came from the second ghost boy as he lifted his staff from Valerie's head, the green mist of stillness still encasing the hunter's body. "Quit playing."

"Fine," the ghost girl said with a brief roll of her eyes in exasperation. "Someone has messed up the flow of time."

"What!" shouted eight voices in unison.

"Messed up time?" Star exclaimed, "Like in '_Back to the Future_'(1)?"

"Not exactly," the girl Phantom answered as she began to float.

"So we're time travellers?" Kwan questioned with interest.

"Not sure, we might be the ones," ghost girl replied with a shrug.

"Whoa, back up a moment," Danny said as he held up his hands. "Who are you and how the heck do you know all this stuff?"

"Oh, sorry, we haven't introduced ourselves," the girl said as the two ghosts exchanged glances, "We're so rarely are asked to after all."

"I'm Sam," the boy Phantom grumbled as he stood with his arms crossed threateningly across his chest.

"And I'm Danni(2)!" The Phantom girl chirped as she did a cute cheer-leading pose in the air.

Jaws dropped and eyes bulged. Particularly two others whose names also happened to be 'Sam' and 'Danny.'

"Weird," Tucker commented as he looked between the two pairs of Sam and Danny. "You guys have got the same names."

"It's their fault after all," the female 'Danny' muttered angrily.

"Shut up!" The male 'Sam' snarled, glaring at his sister.

"Oops," the girl ghost said as she hung her head in mortification.

Tucker's curiosity perked in sudden interest, the little scene between the two siblings inspiring interesting suspicious within his own mind. They had mentioned time travelling and then there was the fact that they looked an awful lot like Danny…

"But I guess you'll just have to call us by our full names, Samuel and Danielle." Samuel said as he kept a stern eye on his sister as he lifted into the air and drifting away.

"I hate them," Danielle pouted, throwing off her embarrassment as if it had never been, following her brother.

"Hate what?" Star questioned, "Your name?"

"Yeah," Danielle muttered before brightening. "Come on, let's get you guys home."

"Wait, you can get us home? How? And how do we know we can trust you?" Dash demanded, taking an aggressive step forward. Fear and frustration caused by everything that kept happening one thing after another a dangerous cocktail mix in his bloodstream.

Danielle's head tilted to the side as she gazed at the champion quarterback. "No."

"But you just said—" Dash began in irritation.

"We can't get you home, but we know who can, and we're the only ones who know how to get to him." The girl Phantom clarified as she waved her staff and released a much calmer Valerie, "Sorry, 'bout that, I though my brother had placed a time limit on your freeze, guess not."

"Who—"

"Clockwork," Danny said, finally spotting the gold and black medallions inscribed with the Master of Times emblem upon the throats of the Phantom siblings.

Dash shot an irritated look at Phantom and wished privately that Fenton was present so that he could pound on him and release some of his tension.

"Brilliant detection, it only took you what—ten minutes?" Samuel said drolly.

"What about Fenton? How's he getting home?" Kwan questioned, puzzled that the boy's two best-friends hadn't mentioned anything.

The two ghost siblings looked at each other. As did a Gothic girl, techno wiz, and ghost boy. Each suddenly **very **uneasy. Each groping for some plausible lie.

"Fenton? Oh, don't worry about him; we'll get him home too." The girl Phantom finally said after an uneasy silence as she motioned the group forward.

"This Clockwork _persona_(3)," Paulina questioned as the group actually began follow the two ghosts, "Who is he?"

"The ghost we work for," Danielle answered cheerfully. "And I have to admit, its a lot more interested then bagging groceries over the summer!"

"This is your summer job?" Danny exclaimed in surprised curiosity as he floated between Sam and Tucker.

"Yep! Pays a lot better too… although it is workers compensation for all of the dangerous stuff we get into," the girl Phantom chirped, concluding with a 'Hey-What-Can-You-Do' shrug.

"Your parents let you? Do dangerous stuff I mean?" Tucker asked in amazement, ignoring the strange looks he got from the others as they continued walking through the Ghost-Zone. He was more and more convinced that these two Phantoms were the future children of Danny. But that raised another interesting question, who was their mom? And as they obviously had ghost powers, were they Phantom's children or Fenton's?

Danielle pulled a face, "Well they're not exactly happy with everything that we do, but they trust Clockwork and well… it's the only thing really open to us."

"What exactly do you do?" Sam questioned warily as the group clambered upwards, getting a helping hand occasionally from a ghostly Danny and the other two Phantoms.

"I believe you are familiar with the concept of a Grim Reaper?" Samuel said as he hauled Star over a particularly rough patch.

"Yes, they're a form of psychopomp; a spirit or deity whose task is to conduct the souls of the recently dead into the afterlife." Sam answered, violet eyes widening as she suddenly made a few mental connections of her own. As did a few other intellects of the group.

"Precisely. Although sometimes a little more **force** is used," Samuel purred as he looked at the suddenly fearful expression upon the Gothic girl's face as well as others.

Dash looked back and forth between the ghost and members of the group, knowing that he'd missed something but being unwilling to admit it.

"You're a Reaper!" Sam exclaim in horror, back-pedalling into Danny.

Dash blanched. Now he wished he did not know.

"No…" the boy Phantom drawled sarcastically, arching his pierced eyebrow upwards, "We just carry the scythes 'cause they look pretty."

The group looked with understanding nervousness at the two innocent looking metal staffs that the two carried. Weapons that they had already seen could become a scythe or even a spear.

"Hey! We're not bad!" Danielle protested, shooting her brother a dirty look, "What about Adolf Hitler?"

Valerie gave the ghost girl a strange look, "What about him? He committed suicide anyway."

The two ghosts' expressions turned purely evil.

"Did he now?" the girl Phantom said softly in a very suggestive tone. Eight pairs of eyes blinked as the intended point sunk in.

"You mean you—he didn't kill himself?" Sam said incredulously, surprise almost halting her in mid stride.

"In general Mother condones violence," Samuel said with a shrug, "But she said she'd make an exception for him and thus we got the job."

"Heck, even I'd make exceptions for him!" Sam muttered pausing to remove a piece of rubble from her boot treads.

"You did," Samuel said blankly, looking at the Goth curiously.

"Samuel!" Danielle hissed, looming over her brother threateningly, who blinked and then cursed softly when he realized that this time he was the one to slip up.

"Anyway, it wasn't that bad of a mission," Danielle said, "It was actually rather cool visiting that time period even if everyone was at war."

"You're one to talk," Samuel muttered as he rubbed the back of his neck looking pointedly at his sibling.

"Hey!" Danielle protested, "I told you to duck!"

"I didn't know you were swinging the bloody Lancea Longini! It still hurts you know."

"Well it's not **my** fault. After all, what are the three things Auntie's always preaching about?" Danielle said before saying in ringing tones obviously imitating someone, "Study hard, do your best, and duck!"

A growl was her answer. A snicker was her response.

Danny blinked. Wait—that was Jazz's saying. And the girl Phantom had said 'Auntie'. In fact the girl ghost's name was a feminine version of his full name. Also they both admitted to working for Clockwork and doing some time travelling. Wait a minute…. Was it possible…? Could it be…? Were these two ghosts **his **future** children**?

* * *

**Footnotes**:

(1) _Back to the Future,_ a 1985 film directed by Robert Zemeckis.  
(2) This story was written and completed before the airing of episode 37, "Kindred Spirits"; the Danni of "Glitches in Time" is in no way related to the Dani of "Danny Phantom" and is an independent and individual character.  
(3) Persona (Spanish) n. person


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Can I ask you two a question?" Danny asked, unsure about how to approach his question but definitely wanting answers.

"Sure!" Danielle chirped happily as she floating backwards facing them all, "I love questions."

"You're from the future right?" Danny said, figuring it would be safer to check that out first.

"Ah-ha," she said quizzically tilting her head to the side, "What about it?"

"And you're both Phantoms?"

"Yep," she said as her head tilted more, her body also tilting in the air.

"Are you my kids?" Danny finally blurted out.

The two siblings gave him very 'Duh!' looks.

"Nah, what gave us away?" Samuel growled sardonically, "The white hair? Glowing green eyes? Or was it the black and silver outfits? No wait, maybe it was the names. I wonder, hum…!"

"I knew it!" Tucker crowed gleefully as he pumped a fist into the air. "I just knew they were yours!"

Valerie looked at the three Phantoms, unsurprised really about the revelation, but she did wonder just how ghosts procreated—it was however a thought that did not please her. As if one ghost kid was bad enough apparently in the future she had to deal with even more! And that rather pissed her off because that meant she hadn't yet gotten rid of the Ghost-Boy.

Sam was also not totally surprised, unconsciously suspecting the same thing herself—but she was caught unaware by the sudden rioting emotions that surged through her. Personally uncomfortable with the though of Danny having children for reasons she did not want to examine too closely. If the two were Danny kids though, who was their mother? Or did the fact that they were ghosts mean that they had been sired by Phantom with another ghost?

Dash looked at the stunned expression on Phantom's face, the celebrating Nerd King, an upset Vampira, an irritated looking Valerie, and the curious expressions on Kwan, Paulina, and Star's faces. Damnit, he had missed something again. This was not the first time an exchange had went over his head but it still madden him to be left out

"Who's your _madre_(1) then?" Paulina asked the question predominate on a few other minds—Danny and Sam's in particular. The looked at the talkative girl Phantom eagerly, particularly Tucker who looked forward to rubbing the knowledge into Danny's face.

"That's for us to know and you to never find out," Danielle chirped with a big grin.

Paulina's full lips formed a pout as the others faces fell with disappointment.

"What are you guys talking about?" Dash said belligerently; frustrated with being left out and angry at having to admit it through his question.

The two Phantoms exchanged looks of silent communication. Danielle floated towards the blonde quarterback and halted before him.

"In the future Danny Phantom has four children," she said as she held up four fingers.

"He has four?" Valerie exclaimed in horror, three Phantoms were bad enough, but** five?** Tucker looked impressed and Danny just looked stunned.

"Yes, four," Danielle confirmed and began ticking them off, "Us two, as well as Lilith and Jedidiah."

Dash muddled over that. "How does a ghost have kids?"

"Daddy's a rather special ghost," Danielle answered as she cast a look over her shoulder at Danny and then blinked at the ghostly pirate that loomed up behind the halfa.

"I have you now Ghost Boy!" The second-in-command of the Ghost-Zone's prison warden exclaimed as an ecto-net descended upon the unsuspecting halfa.

Danny screamed as the glowing mesh sent pulses of ectoplasm though his body and immobilized him. Cries that were echoed by the humans, either in fear at the ghost's sudden appearance or in worry over their halfa friend.

"Bringing in more human contraband I see!" Bullet gloated as he stood over the writhing form of the escaped prisoner. Ghostly prison guards standing at attention behind him, smirks on their own faces visible through their riot helmets. "You know that's against the rules."

"Excuse me," a female voice said in annoyance.

Looking up from his pain stricken captive, the seedy ghost looked with interest at the pretty female ghost that was floating towards him.

"And who are you sugar?" Bullet said with a leer.

"Danni!" The girl said prettily as she stopped in front of him.

"What?" Bullet said with a sudden frown of suspicious worry.

"You know, Danni?" the girl said in a reasonable tone of voice, as almost casually the end of her staff dropped onto the Ghost Boy's trapped form and short circuited the ectoplasm net. "The same name as this guy here."

"You're interfering with prison business." Bullet protested as he shifted behind the prison guards as the Ghost Boy shook off the ecto-net. "That's against the rules!"

"No," an angry voice growled from behind him. Whirling Bullet stared at the evilly grinning face just inches from his own. "Leering at my sister—now **that's** against the rules."

Stars exploded in Bullet's head as a metal object contacted solidly with his head. Knocking him backwards to collide with the ghost guards behind him and causing a tangled heap of ghostly bodies.

The pirate looking ghost gazed dazedly upwards at the two ghosts floating over him, blades of green ectoplasm emerging from the staffs they carried to create scythes.

"Trespassing is also against the rules," the girl ghost almost purred with a sly expression on her face.

"Especially against those in the service of the Old Ones," the boy growled with an evil smirk.

Bullet blinked and then really looked at the two ghosts. There—resting against their collarbones—was a gold and black medallion with a stylized interlocking C and W.

Clockwork.

"Crap," he whispered, one red eye bulging in fearful dismay. Once his rattled wits had collected enough, he scrambled to his feet and prostrated himself before the two ghosts. The guards accompanying him following suit. "Forgive me Chosen Ones of the Master of Time. For I in my ignorance have sinned against the Old One."

The siblings rolled their eyes, darn it, he knew the ritual words of pardon. Technically speaking they could still melt out any punishment they chose, but it was no more fun once they started grovelling.

"Forgiven, so mote it be," Samuel growled distastefully, personally aching to get another hit in for the guy's formerly slimy attitude towards his sister.

Rising only enough to move, the group of prison ghosts backed away, avoiding making eye contact with the two Chosen Ghosts or those under their protection. Doing so would be considered an insult according to the rules and would give the Chosen Ones even more reason to punish them as they desired. And there would be given no second chance to plead for a pardon.

Danielle sighed as the bunch of ghosts vanished from sight into the Ghost-Zone. "It's no fun when they know the rules."

"Is Clockwork really such a terrifying ghost?" Valerie questioned, making the connection between the medallions the two future Phantoms wore and the pure fear that the other ghosts had displayed. Suddenly extremely nervous. A nervousness that was shared by the rest of the group as they edged closer together.

"Nah," Danielle said as she turned back to them cheerfully, "But he's one of the Top 10 Old Ones You Don't Want to Tick Off."

"What do you mean?" Valerie asked warily.

"Think about it. He's the Master of Time. How miserable could he make **your **life?"

Eight people though about it. Then eight people shuddered at the multitude of possibilities.

* * *

**Footnotes**:

(1) Madre (Spanish) n. mother


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"Come on, we've go a ways to go yet," Danielle said, as she and her brother lifted into the air once again and began floating away. Still a little nervous, the seven humans and one halfa followed.

"Where are you taking us?" Danny questioned as he drifted between Sam and Tucker.

"The Gate Grove."

"The what?" Danny asked giving his two future children strange looks. He had never heard of the Gate Grove at any time while in the Ghost-Zone.

"It's pretty much what it sounds like," Danielle said with a shrug, "A bunch of Gates all together in one place."

"Well then aren't we here?" Valerie said puzzled, waving a hand at all of the floating doors around them.

"No, not Doors, Gates." Danielle clarified, "There's a difference. Doors open into difference dimensions and they tend to change to where they lead to a lot, Gates however are designated to open up directly into the domain of an Old One."

"Where can you find this… Gate Grove?" Danny questioned, mentally picturing his map of the Ghost-Zone.

"Usually only by accident," Danielle informed them, "The Grove tends to move about."

"Then how are you going to find it?" Kwan questioned.

Danielle taped a gloved finger to the medallion resting against her collarbone, "These guide us. So don't worry, we know where it is."

. . .

"Well, well, well. Who do we have here?" A musical voice said from above, turning their heads upwards, they all looked at the blue-flaming-haired ghost that was hovering over them.

"Ember McLain?" Five voices who had not known previously that the rock-star was a ghost shouted in surprise.

"How interesting," Ember purred as her fingers lightly strummed the strings of her guitar, "Humans in the Ghost-Zone. And who do I spy but a certain… Ghost-Boy."

"Ember," Danny growled, his green eyes shifting to yellow.

"I see." The ghostly musician said, her green eyes looking slyly at the girl next to Phantom, "Still heartbroken over your dark little girlfriend?"

Five pairs of eyes exchanged looks as those that did not know Phantom's identity made some mental connections. Was Ember referring to Sam? But she was with Fenton…. Wasn't she?

Danny shifted to stand between Ember and Sam instinctively, vividly remembering what had happened last time Ember placed him under thrall. A low growl resonating in his throat as unconsciously his greatest power began to build deep within his chest.

Two Phantoms who'd been ignored exchanged looks. They knew** that **sound when they heard it and it was their cue to cut in.

"Sorry to interrupt," Danielle said as she tapped the ghost rock-star on the shoulder, "But we really what to keep our hearing."

The ghostly singer screeched angrily, "Are you saying my singing's bad?"

"Yes," Samuel growled.

"Especially compared to Lilith," Danielle chimed in.

"No one sings better then me!" Ember growled as her hand shifted a setting on her guitar.

"Bring it on," Samuel growled eagerly as a green blade emerged from his staff.

"Yeah, we've got some steam to work off," Danielle said as her staff also became a scythe.

Ember's green eyes narrowed as her blue hair flared up. Her fingers raked across guitar strings and unleashed a blast of sound waves comprised of ectoplasm.

The two Phantoms dodged to the side, forcing Danny to grab Sam and Tucker who where in the path of the destructive attack. The sound waves hit the pathway and disintegrated the ground, creating a gap that opened into the abyssal depths of the Ghost-Zone.

"Oops," Danielle cringed as she looked at the human party, "Forgot about them."

"Then lets get this over with quick," Samuel rumbled.

"'Kay! After you!" Danielle said with a cheeky grin and a gesture of her hand.

"With pleasure!" Samuel growled as he charged forwards, the scythe's ectoplasm blade flaring larger. A few lightning quick movements of the scythe and Ember's guitar was firewood.

"You destroyed my guitar!" Ember shrieked, "You will pay for this!"

"Nah ah!" Danielle teased from behind as the staff end of her scythe bopped the ghostly singer on the head, freezing her in place as an ectoplasmic mist wrapped around her.

"I love this move," Danielle crowed gleefully. "I'm _so_ glad Daddy finally taught it to us."

Danny blinked, he could do that?

"Yeah, but what do we do with her now?" Samuel grumbled.

Two glowing green eyes meet as two minds came to the same devious conclusion.

"Klemper."

Ember's eyes rolled frantically and one could practically hear her pleading though she was unable to speak or move.

Smirks adorning their faces the siblings turned and faced the abyss of the Ghost-Zone. Drawing deep breaths they unleashed a cry infused with the power of the Ghostly Wail, insuring it would be heard throughout the realm.

"**Klemper**! **Wanna be friends**?"

Danny blanched, turning even more ghostly pale when far off in the distance after the echo of the cry had faded, an enthusiastic screech of glee was heard.

"You know, when we're evil, we're** really **evil." Danielle mustered to her brother as they turned back to face the group.

"Yeah!" Danny agreed forcefully.

Danielle gave a cheeky grin, "And now its time to leave."

"Why? Who's Klemper? Is he dangerous?" Valerie questioned as the two Phantom siblings hustled them away from the statuary form of Ember.

Danny rolled his eyes remembering his own difficulties with the overly friendly ghost and muttered, "Not really, but he's an annoying pest."

"Yep, you could say that again," Danielle agreed, "Klemper has one fault, he wants to be your friend."

"That doesn't sound too bad," Star said with a thoughtful expression on her face.

Sam and Tucker rolled their own eyes. They had had encounters with Klemper themselves and definitely sided with the Phantoms on their opinions regarding the pyjama-wearing ghost.

"With a friend like Klemper, you don't need enemies." Danielle said dryly.

"Oh," was the blonde cheerleader's muted response.

"If that was Ember McLain," Valerie began thoughtfully.

"In the flesh…" Danielle said, her face quirking into a funny expression, "So to speak."

"Then it's possible for ghosts to masquerade as humans, not just overshadow them?" Valerie questioned.

"Yes," Danny answered, "And before you ask, you've meet a few others, especially before you became a ghost-hunter."

"Who?" Valerie questioned, mentally running through her list of suspicious persons as she eyed the Ghost-Boy suspiciously.

"Do you remember Doctor Penelope Spectra and Mr. Bertrand?" Danny said.

"The school councillor and her receptionist Casper had a while back?" Valerie replied.

"Yep," Danny confirmed, "They were ghosts."

"Then who else is a ghost?" Valerie asked, voicing the question that was suddenly predominant on the mind of the other unknowing humans. They had all been possessed before by ghosts, especially when Phantom became the #1 Public Enemy and they did not want to think about them knowing people who were not overshadowed but genuinely ghosts.

"More then you know," was Danny's cryptic reply, "More then you know."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Beware!" A ghostly voice wailed.

Six voices groaned in unison as the remaining four humans jumped.

A short ghost wearing overalls appearing before them, "I am the Box Ghost! I have Power over all Containers Cardboard and Square! Behold the awesome Bubble-wrap of Death!"

"We **know!**" Six voices cried out in exasperation.

The legendary Box Ghost blinked at the aggravated expressions on a majority of those he threatened, three he recognized instantly, two others looked darn familiar and the sixth voice was threateningly well-known as well. He had not stumbled upon a bunch of new ghosts to threaten but a group of hunters!

His red eyes darting frantically for a way to escape from this predicament he noticed the reason for the two Gothic looking Phantoms looking so familiar—they wore Clockwork's insignia. Okay, it was official. His afterlife was about to become a living nightmare.

"Beware!" He cried out before zipping away.

Two of the group sighed, eight others exchanged strange looks.

"Okay, that was strange." Star commented.

"Yeah, really strange," Danny said in puzzlement, "Usually he sticks around and fights."

"You mean he actually sticks around and fights you?" Danielle said incredulously.

"What, he doesn't for you?" Danny asked in bafflement.

"No," Danielle pouted. "He never does."

"Be thankful then," Valerie commented as she rolled her green eyes at the downcast expression on Ghost-Girl's face.

"Although," Danielle said as her expression brightened, "There** was** one time when we actually had time to chase him down."

"Oh man," Samuel moaned in remembered pleasure, "That was great."

"Yeah," Danielle agreed with a similar blissful expression on her face.

Three best friends exchanged looks at the nostalgic expressions on the two future Phantom's faces. Okay, it was official, Danny's future children were defiantly… well **weird **was the kindest way to put it.

. . .

"How much longer?" Paulina pouted as the group continued to tromp through the Ghost-Zone, "My feet hurt."

"Wuss," Sam muttered.

"Phantom, will you carry me?" Paulina asked seductively, casting a flirtatious look at Phantom.

Danny's face turned beat-red as Sam saw red. Dash himself was ticked off with the way Paulina kept trying to cozy up to the Ghost-Boy.

The two ghostly siblings exchanged communicative looks, as interesting as a cat-fight would be to watch, they did not have time for one unfortunately. Before they could intervene however, something else occurred.

"Ah little badger," a cultured masculine voice said a ghost floated up from below the ledge they stood upon. "I see you've been practicing your duplication skills."

Danny, Sam, and Tucker blanched at the older ghost's appearance. Valerie also did a double take, recognising the ghost from when Pariah Dark had tossed Amity Park into the Ghost-Zone.

Vlad Plasmius quirked an eye upwards as he got a better look at the three Phantoms, "My mistake, it seems you have not yet developed that ability."(1)

"What do you want Plasmius," Danny growled with great displeasure.

"Why Daniel, what makes you think I want anything?" Vlad said with false surprise as he looked curiously for a moment at the two gothic looking Phantoms, one male and one female. Defiantly disproving his earlier assumption that Daniel had divided into more forms.

"You're never in the Ghost-Zone without a reason. You never bother **me** without a reason." Danny responded.

"Ah, your young teenage mind begins to learn," Vlad patronized, also looking briefly at the humans accompanying the other halfa.

Danny's vocal response was a growl as he glared at his archenemy, green eyes becoming more yellow in hue.

"I'll say it again, what are you looking for?" Danny growled.

"Now I know where you get it from," Danielle muttered aside to her brother, a snorted _Keh!_ was his response.

"Well if you insist," Vald said imperiously as he ignored the byplay between the two unknowns, "I'm searching for the Spear of Longinus—not that you with your uneducated mind has any idea what that is."

"I thought I told you to hide that thing!" Samuel hissed to his sister.

"I did!" She protested looking affronted, "It's in my closet!"

"End of discussion," he muttered as he turned aside.

"What are you talking about?" Vald finally demanded; irritated with the muttered conversation the two ghosts were having and not showing the proper respect for a ghost of his age, power, and stature.

"The Lancea Longini." Samuel said blankly, what else would he be talking about?

Plasmius's crimson eyes widened as he exclaimed in shock, "You have the Spear of Longinus?"

"No," Samuel muttered in exasperation, didn't adults catch anything? "I though we just settled that issue—it's in Danielle's closet."

"**You** have the Spear?" Vlad declared disbelievingly as he pointed at the female ghost.

"I do believe Samuel just said that," Danielle answered in a very 'Duh!' tone of voice.

Vlad's expression was of annoyance as he said snidely. "I see… and how did children such as you acquire such an object of power?"

"Let me see…" Danielle said seriously, totally oblivious to the insulting innuendo hidden within the words as she began to tick of the points on her fingers, "wake up in the morning, go to work, get our assignment, knock off Hitler, get the spear, go home."

Vlad blinked.

Danielle ponder thoughtfully for a few more moments before giving a decisive nod, "Yep, that about sums it up."

Samuel snickered at the taken aback expression on Plasmius's face as his sister just looked at the dark halfa guilelessly.

"That was not what I meant child," Vald began in annoyance.

Danielle scowled as she gave an exasperated huff and scolded, "Then say what you mean and mean what you say!"

"What I **meant**," Plasmius continued, "is that children such as yourself should not have the Spear, it should be in more responsible hands—like my own."

"Hey! We're responsible!" Danielle pouted childishly. Samuel just shook his head at his sister as his eyes rolled in exasperation.

Danny blinked at the interaction between his future children and his present enemy. This had to be the first time he had ever seen Plasmius surprised, confused or even one could say **baffled** by anything. But as with anything involving Vlad, things soon turned nasty.

"I think you should give the Spear to me." Vald said with a hard look on his face.

"Why?" Danielle questioned with all innocence.

"You will give the Spear of Longinus to me or I will take it from you." Vald sneered.

Danielle blinked, still looking rather clueless. Turning to her brother she asked, "Did he say what I think he said?"

"Yes," Samuel huffed in exasperation.

"Oh… well.… Make me." Danielle huffed childishly as she stuck her nose in the air.

Samuel sighed, his shoulders slumping as he drifted out of the line of fire.

"With pleasure," Vald practically purred, raising his hand and throwing an ectoplasm ball of red light.

"Look out!" Danny shouted as he lunged forward, wrapping an arm around Danielle's waist and dragging her out of the ball's trajectory.

"Hey!" Danielle protested, wriggling free, "You're not suppose to interfere!"

"Yes Daniel, interfering is **not** allowed." Vlad said with an evil grin, if the ghost girl wanted to fight without Daniel's help that was fine with him.

"But—"

"Don't worry about it," Samuel said as he clamped a hand onto Danny's shoulder and dragged him to the side where the other humans stood. "Just watch."

"Now where were we? Oh yes, you were throwing an ectoplasm ball at me," Danielle recapped cheerfully.

"That is correct," Vlad agreed, shrugging at the ghost's apparent wish to be severally beaten. Another and this time stronger ectoplasm ball building in his hand. Almost casually he raised his hand and threw it at the girl who stood unmoving in its path. Well **this** battle would be short.

The deadly ball of red energy reached Danielle—who caught it.

Two jaws dropped simultaneously, they had **never **seen **any **ghost catch another ghost's ectoplasm attack. Many ghosts swore it couldn't even been done and was nothing more then hearsay!(2)

Danielle looked at her opponent as she drew her hand to the side, still holding the red ball of energy within her grasp. She seemed changed somehow, gone was that perky cheerleader. In her place was something else, something else that was almost… frightening.

"We are born as we are—not created." Danielle said in a deadly clam voice, all expression gone from her face. She tossed the red ectoplasm ball upwards, letting it fall, as in one smooth motion she grasped her staff in both hands and swung it like a bat smashing the attack back at Vlad.

It returned at twice the speed and contacted squarely with Vlad's chest, smacking him backwards. He brought himself to a halt with a jerk, eyes narrowed angrily when he saw no opponent standing in front of him and the stunned expressions of the others present.

"We have powers you can not even **begin** to conceive of." A feminine voice whispered against his ear from behind.

Jerking around, all Vlad caught was the girl's laughing image as she transported without a flash, merely seeming to turn intangible. Furious at himself and the girl his eyes flared brighter as red ectoplasm enveloped his hands.

A gasp of fear from behind spun him about to face death personified.

Gone was the ghost girl, standing before him was a figure with black shadow robes flaring, yellow eyes glowing from within the dark cowl, stark white fingers gripping a green bladed scythe.

Vlad hastily encased himself in a red shield of ectoplasm, mentally cursing, '_A Grim Reaper—Oh Fudge Buckets_!'

"Frankly?" The figure said in a voice that now echoed eerily, "My littlest brother Jed can take care of you."

He blinked and the Spectre of Death was mere inches from his face, his shield demolished. Icy breath wafting against his skin as the shadow robes brushed against him. Freezing him to the bone where they touched.

"And he's only three." Death whispered.

He blinked again and Death was gone—instead the arrogant expression of the ghost girl meet his eyes, her lips almost brushing his own.

"Consider that your only warning Vlad Plasmius," she drawled softly with a smirk as she backed away from the stunned elder halfa. "We are something out of your experience and as you're an intelligent man, I think you know when to quit while you're… still living."

* * *

**Footnote****s**:

(1) In "Reign Storm", Danny did manage to successfully duplicate himself, however it appears because he has not been able to duplicate since and has even had failed attempts that the duplication was made possible by the Ecto-Skeleton, not his own abilities.  
(2) Dedicated fans may protest that this ability is not unique, and has in fact been preformed by Vlad in episode 7, "Bitter Reunions." However I and Muse Mac have discussed the matter and come to the conclusion that Vlad did not catch Danny's ectoplasm blast, but rather absorbed and then redirected it back; a conclusion that is supported by the fact that for a time the ectoplasm blast disappeared from sight before being re-fired.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

The spectators watched the battle between the two ghosts incredulously, each having their own thoughts about what was going on.

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were sent mentally reeling by the scene they had just witnessed. Vlad Plasmius—Danny's archenemy who had foiled and taunted him at every turn had just been beaten—with absolutely no effort. Beaten non the less by Danny's future **daughter**. Who had used abilities they had never seen before or even thought possible.

Danny wondered in confusion, '_How are such powers possible?_' His mind grappling for an explanation he thought back, comparing what he knew of himself, Vlad, and his future daughter. He had received his powers at age fourteen, Vlad in his mid-twenties. He could use the Ghostly Wail. Something he had not yet seen used by any other ghost or even Vlad.

'_I wonder, if because I received my powers earlier, does that mean that I have the potential to develop greater abilities?_' Danny thought. If this was true it would explain why and how, Danielle who was fourteen and obviously born with her powers, was capable of such feats.

Sam and Tucker were thinking along different lines. They had never seen Danny combat Vlad, just the aftermath that left Danny almost broken every time. But they **had **seen Danny defeat ghost after ghost, ergo Vlad must be even more powerful the their best-friend, and Danielle had beaten Vald with **no effort what so ever**. She had not needed the Fenton-Spectre-Deflector or any other Fenton weapons—she had defeated him at his peak. How did she do that?

Valerie watched the battle, not fully comprehending the magnitude of what was occurring. Though she had never seen any of the moves or attacks preformed by the Ghost-Girl preformed by any other ghost, every ghost had unique abilities thus she had no reason to suspect that this was any different and that what she was witnessing was consider impossible. She did not do much researching into ghosts, preferring to direct her energy directly into hunting them. But she knew enough from the expression on Phantom's face that something was up. Something that scared even him.

The remaining four humans, Dash, Paulina, Kwan, and Star all had their thoughts running along similar lines. The ghosts that kept showing up at school could do **nothing** like this. Heck even Phantom when he appeared and fought didn't use such abilities. The entire thing was rather surreal, like they were watching an action movie where the good guys turned out to be more dangerous then the bad guys.

While the seven humans and one halfa contemplated the powers of the female Phantom, Vlad began to take stock, taking time to actually look over his opponent and begin to notice certain things.

She had the normal glowing ghost eyes of green with snowy coloured hair and her skin however did not possess the coloured tinge that a majority of ghosts had. Her's was remarkably human in complexion. Her face though could only be described as a feminine form of Daniel's.

There was also a striking similarity between the girl and Daniel's outfits, the primary colour scheme of black and silver, although the girl's was embellished with other accessories. Two belts were draped around her waist and two pouches were belted against her thighs as well, she also carried a staff as though it was an extension of herself.

What he spotted on the neck of the girl's costume however knocked the thoughts of how similar the girl and Daniel were right out of his head. Though he had never seen an Old Ones' medallion himself, he had seen drawings of them and had memorized the insignias of the more powerful ones.

The emblem of the girl's was an interlocking C and W and **that** meant only one Old One, one of the more elusive and powerful ones as well—the Master of Time.

"You are a Chosen One of the Master of Time," Vlad observed as he regained his composure and his natural arrogance reasserted itself. Briefly checking out the second ghost, confirming that he also wore an Old Ones' medallion on his throat.

"Someone's a little slow today. Like bloody hell, Daddy figured that one out before you!" Danielle said disgustedly as she floated to her brother's side.

"Daddy?" Vlad questioned as a single eyebrow arched superciliously.

"Oh please," Danielle muttered irately, "don't tell me you haven't noticed."

"The similarities between Daniel and you two?" Vlad said smoothly, one again taking note of the three nearly identical ghosts. "Then I am to correctly assume that you and your companion are the future offspring of Daniel?"

"Hallelujah! We have contact!" Danielle exclaimed exasperatedly.

"Fascinating," Vlad murmured, wondering what the impact of their existence meant to himself. Primarily about what happened to some of his more 'special' future plans

"We're twins actually," Danielle admitted, "besides myself, there's Lilith and as I've already mentioned, Jed."

Plasmius's eyes narrowed at the information. So it appeared that Daniel was in a steady relationship and these two weren't just an accidental occurrence. But who was their mother? That they knew of their ghost genes pointed to the possibility that their mother was a ghost, but was it also possible that the genes of a human-ghost cross were dominant thus the mother was human.

The only way to get answers to his questions was by remaining with the two future children, something that Daniel would protest vigorously. Now how to arrange for himself to accompany this misfit group…. Mentally Vlad cringed at the only possibility, he hated humbling himself.

"Forgive me Chosen Ones of the Master of Time. For I in my ignorance have sinned against the Old One." Vlad began.

The two twins exchanged looks, something was up, Plasmius was **not** someone who would invoke the Ritual of Pardon.

"For the crime I have committed, I wish to tenure my apologies to the Master of Time if the Old One will grand me audience."

The twins rolled their eyes, now they got it. That was a right of the protocol that was rarely invoked, actually requesting an audience with the Old One.

"Granted, so mote it be," Danielle declared, knowing that as Plasmius now had knowledge of them, Clockwork would be **very **interested in seeing the other halfa. For reasons that unfortunately would not benefit Vlad in any way.

"What?" Danny asked suspiciously, recognizing the concluding phrase from when Samuel had said it to Bullet.

"Vlad will be joining us," Danielle said with a cheeky grin mentally savouring the resulting explosion. Ah, some things never changed, like her father's apparent dislike for his initial archenemy and later prime annoyance.

. . .

"Here it is, the Gate Grove," Danielle exclaimed as she broadly swept her arms out in an indicating gesture.

Everyone looked at the massive structures that loomed over them, strongly resembling the gates that lead to Japanese Shinto shrines. Between the two pillars was nothing but empty space, not even a swirling vortex like with the Fenton Portal.

"Ah… you sure they work?" Valerie questioned sceptically, they looked a little old and worn to her as they walked among the floating gates, looking at the weird emblems carved upon them.

"Of course they do, but a little forewarning—you don't **ever** go though a Gate without an escort or previous permission." Danielle warned, casting a side look to Plasmius.

"Why not?" Danny asked, poking at one of the pillars.

"'Cause the Old Ones don't like it." Danielle said cheerfully. "And when they don't like something you do, they take it out on you."

"What happens to you?" Tucker questioned.

"Well it depends on the Old One." Danielle said distractedly as she and her twin searched for Clockwork's Gate.

"Well give us an example." Sam said.

"Okay, the last ghost that went though Clockwork's Gate was—ah there it is!" Danielle explained as she spotted what the siblings were looking for.

"Was…?" Sam urged pointedly as she and everyone was arranged in front of the gate by the ghost twins.

"Oh, was tossed into the late Cretaceous period." Danielle concluded.

"That doesn't sound too bad," Tucker commented. "He got to see the dinosaurs after all."

"Try right before the meteorite hit." Samuel added dryly.

"Ouch," Tucker winced.

"Yeah, ouch is right." Danielle said with a nod. "Now everyone hold hands."

The members of the group looked at each other. There was **no way** they were holding hands with each other.

Danielle raised an eyebrow at them, "You will hold hands, or you're not getting home. Is this clear?"

Sam instantly seized Tucker and Danny's hands, as interesting as this was, there was no way she was spending the rest of eternity with a perky ghost. With low grumblings, the others also linked hands. Paulina eagerly seizing Phantom's free hand and exchanged deadly glares with Sam. Vlad of all people ended up holding hands with Dash and Samuel.

"Now don't let go or there's no telling when you'll end up and ignore the tingling, it's normal." Danielle said cheerfully as she and Samuel who were at the ends of the chain plunged through the gate, a blinding blue-white light flaring out to envelop them all.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Everyone blinked rapidly, clearing the white spots that danced before their eyes as their vision finally returned. Then everyone stared in shock at the sight before them. It was definitely **not **what they had expected.

It was a war zone. That was the only way to describe it. The floor was littered with debris. Many of the stonewalls were barely standing while a few were just heaps of rubble. Gears of all sizes lay scattered about, some buried and some not, some whole but a majority were bent, twisted, or broken.

"Welcome to Clockwork's domain, you have arrived at Time Castle." Danielle proclaimed proudly.

"Good God! What happened here? World War III?" Valerie exclaimed in disbelief as she watched the swarm of ghostly construction works as they hauled away rock and made repairs.

"No," Danielle answered as the group hastily dropped hands, realizing that it wasn't necessary anymore as they were all standing in the entrance of a nearly demolished castle tower.

"My evil future self didn't get free did he?" Danny asked in horror.

"No although we don't know where the Thermos is at the moment. It's around here some where… haven't found it yet though." Danielle said cheerfully as she floated forwards, drifting over the wreckage and leaving the humans to scrabble over the mess in their path.

"Evil future self?" Valerie questioned.

"Yeah, in an alternate timeline I go bad." Danny admitted reluctantly, looking at his sort-of-friend-slash-hunter.

"No surprise there." Valerie muttered darkly.

"Try evil incarnate." Danielle piped up.

"Okay, I go **really **bad." Danny amended with a cringe.

"Oh, it's not too bad," Danielle said with a wave to indicate the destruction, "you should have seen it a week ago, one could almost say there was no tower. Heck, we're even got our roof back. This is progress."

"What happened then?" Tucker asked curiously as he looked about.

"Oh, Jed—my little brother—did," was Danielle's casual answer.

"What kind of monsters do you have?" Vlad exclaimed as he looked at Daniel, Grim Reapers and a child who could apparently demolish the domain of an Old One? What was the fourth one like?

"Jed's not a monster!" Danielle protested shooting daggers at the dark halfa, before saying in a huff, "He's just misunderstood."

"If this ghost Clockwork is so great and can control time," Dash said with a puzzled look on his face, "why didn't he stop this?"

"Well that's one of Jed's many quirks." Danielle replied with a sigh as they left the main entrance hall and passed through another doorway, "He seems to exist outside of time. Thus Time Out doesn't work on him."

Eyes blinked and those who did not understand the reference chorused, "Time Out?"

"Oh," Danielle said as she rubbed her forehead, "forgot, you don't know it. It's what we call Clockwork's ability to freeze the time stream."

"What's with all the coffins?" Kwan asked, gesturing to the crystal sarcophagus that were scattered among the debris, being carefully freed by the ghost workers and stacked together.

"Those are souls undergoing their punishment from Themis(1)." Danielle explained as the group passed closely by one of the coffins, they could barely make out the humanoid form within the glittering pinkish crystal. Etched upon the lid was an image of a scale.

"Themis? Who's he? Is he like Clockwork?" Paulina asked.

Danielle looked with amusement at the Latino girl, "Themis is the Spirit of Justice and yes, **she's** an Old One."

"Lady Justice is a ghost?" Valerie questioned in surprise.

"Yeah, that's Themis' more common name among humans." Danielle replied.

Valerie blinked and then fell deep into her own thoughts as she attempted to puzzle a sudden moral dilemma out.

"Themis is also the name of a Greek Titaness," Sam said with a thoughtful frown, "are there other ghosts that we humans know of and have just called something different?"

"Well duh! Ever heard of the Holy Spirit? Hello! Spirit? Holy **Spirit**?" Danielle exclaimed testily as she gave the group a look. "But seriously, most of those that you call Greek deities are in fact what ghosts call the Old Ones."

"That doesn't make any sense though… if the Old Ones are deities then what exactly is the Ghost-Zone? I though it was just a form of Limbo." Sam said in confusion as they made their way through the ruins of Clockwork's tower.

"It **is** Limbo, the place where generally the souls of those with unfinished business reside. However, the Old Ones were never human. One could sort of say they were** born** from human thought but…" Danielle shrugged philosophically, "the Old Ones are the Old Ones."

"Then what about Heaven and Hell and all the other forms of the afterlife?" Sam questioned.

"Limbo is a transitory stage. All souls of the newly dead come through here, whether they become a ghost or not is a different matter. If they become a ghost, then they are judged by Lady Justice and it is she who decrees who shall undergo punishment for deeds commit in life or remain unconfined as a ghost until they complete their unfinished business."

"What about the souls that don't become ghosts?"

"The pass beyond the Veil and then what happens to them… whose to say? The Old Ones certainly won't." Danielle concluded with a grumble.

Sam fell silent as she muddled over what she had just learned.

"You mentioned punishment, is that what the coffins are for?" Kwan questioned as they continued to walk by the crystal objects.

"Yes actually, the coffins trap them within their own nightmares, thus it's their own demons that torment them, which is a lot better then physical torment, cheaper to." Danielle said brightly.

"It's like the Soul Shredder then?" Tucker said, shuddering at his own experience living his own nightmare.

"The Fright Knight's Soul Shredder is patterned after Themis' powers actually, but they basically do the same thing." Danielle answered as she taped her staff against a picture carved onto a coffin. "The scales are a measure of how long their punishment lasts."

"So how long does punishment last?" Kwan questioned.

"Depends," Danielle said with a shrug, "either they must repent, or until what ever duration Themis' sets is over. I know about five who are damned for as long as existence continues."

"Whoa," Kwan said, impressed as he began to look at the coffins more closely, seeing that thought they all were carved with scales, they were all slightly different, the left or right side higher then the other.

"Why are they here then?" Valerie questioned. "You said this is Clockwork's domain. What does Time have to do with Justice?"

"They don't exist in time any more, thus they're now Clockworks." Danielle responded.

"Hey, why aren't any of them broken?" Star observed as a slab of stone she'd swear weighted a ton was lifted upwards, revealing an unmarked coffin below it while everything else was crushed.

"They're unbreakable and the one thing Jed can't affect…" Danielle paused with a frown for a moment, "Anyway we think so."

"We hope so." Samuel muttered.

"We **pray** so." Danielle concluded fervently.

* * *

**Footnote**:

(1) Themis: lit. 'justice', 'order'; a Titaness in ancient Greek mythology.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

"Samuel, could you look after them for a bit? I just remembered that there's something I want to do." Danielle said suddenly as the group of seven humans and four ghosts moved deeper into the tower.

"Neh," was Samuel's uncommunicative grunted response that his twin was fully capable of translating.

"Thanks a bunch," Danielle said brightly as she flashed a quick smile at the rest of the group before flying ahead. As she disappeared through another doorway they all could hear her calling out in a singsong voice.

"T.J! Oh T.J! Where are you!"

"Help! Get me out of here!" Came the muffled response of a boy's voice.

"I'm going to kill you!" Danielle sang out.

The humans of the group gulped as they exchanged nervous looks. She was joking… wasn't she?

"On second though," the boy's voice came faintly, "Leave me here."

That confirmed it—apparently she wasn't.

"When I get my hands on you T.J.," Danielle's remarkably cheerfully voice sang, "I am going to cut out your heart, rip open your gut and feed your intestines to you. Then I am going to crack open your skull and pick your brains."

Many of the group turned very, very pale as they listened to the ghost girl's tirade. Danny and Vlad themselves were so white that they appeared more wraith like then ghost like.

"Danielle, stop it," Samuel growled at his sister who stood before a pile of collapsed gears with hands on her hips threateningly as he and the group entered the main hub of Time Castle, gears, clocks of all sizes and types ticking away, and giant bells could be seen throughout the room.

"Why?" Danielle whined in protest, "I haven't even started!"

"You're scaring them."

"Oh…" Danielle cast the group guilty looks, "Oops. But still, I think T.J. should see what's he's done this time."

"Ah… do I want to see?" Came a hesitant voice from beneath the pile of gears.

"Oh yes you do," Samuel said with a smirk as he and his sister turned their arms intangible and plunged them into the gears and pulled their friend out.

"Oh crud," the voice of the still invisible T.J. whimpered, "I am **so dead**."

Samuel and Danielle turned their limbs solid again, turning their friend visible. Two pairs of green eyes meet and blinked at each other.

"Great! More future children!" Valerie exclaimed in disgust.

"Tucker Junior, I'd like you to meet Teenage Daddy," Danielle said with a smirk as she draped an arm across the shoulders of her African-American friend, "Tucker, I'd like you to meet Tucker Junior, or as we call him, T.J."

"Okay, if you're my son, who's your mom?" Tucker asked as he looked at his practical mirror image, what was it with these future kids resembling them so strongly anyway?

Instantly two pairs of ghostly hands clamped over T.J's mouth.

"We told you, that's for us to know and for you to never find out," said two Phantoms. After releasing their friend Samuel glared at them as he planted his feet and crossed his arms across his chest, Danielle on the other hand began to drift about in the air.

"Come on," Tucker complained, "What is it with you guys not saying who your mothers are?"

"Hey, we look too much like our father's to deny it and we're not telling you who our mothers are because we sort of want to be born ya know." Danielle replied drolly as she rotated onto her side.

"So if you told us, you wouldn't be born?" Tucker theorized.

"Well, we're assuming that anyway," Danielle admitted with a shrug as she rolled upside down in the air, "How would you like to be told when your fourteen going on fifteen not only what happens to you in the future, but who you're going to marry and how many kids you're going to have? Not many, I can tell you that. Especially when you end up with someone you didn't even think was possible to be with, or didn't even think of them in 'That Way' when you were a teen."

Tucker and Danny grimaced, shuddering at some of the thoughts and possibilities that were brought to mind by what Danielle said.

"Okay," Tucker concluded, "We'll leave it at that."

"I do have one question though," Vlad suddenly said, Danielle cocking her head at him to indicate her receptiveness to it, "Your mother, is she ghost or human?"

"**Well**…" Danielle drawled out, all attention suddenly on her and the very predominate question, as she glanced at her brother. "I **suppose **we **could** tell you **that**."

Tucker practically leaned forward with eagerness, as did Danny and quite a few of the present females, Paulina in particular.

"Mom's human."

Everyone in the room looked at Danny, each thinking their own thoughts or ones similar to each other. Paulina was thrilled thinking that it meant she did get together with Phantom. Dash, Kwan, Star and Valerie all wonder who the heck the woman was and how did she stand begin with a ghost.

Tucker and Sam had thoughts similar to the four others but with a slight twist to it, did Danny's future wife even know of his unique blood and if she did, when'd she learn about them?

Danny and Vlad were also thinking along the same lines for once, apparently the genes of a halfa were dominant and it didn't matter that the children's blood was only technically one third; the ghostly genes were fully present and evident.

"So, exactly how do a ghost and a human have kids?" Valerie asked, personally mystified that Phantom apparently got together with a human woman. He was evil and not to be trusted and yet apparently had a wife and definitely** four **children. Heck he was a **ghost** for Christ's sake!

"The usually way. How does anything else have kids?" Danielle said with a smirk as she drifted back upright.

Valerie blanched, no way. "Eww!"

"No, the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady, now **that's** eww," Danny said, loosing all but Tucker, Sam, and the two twins with his comment.

"Aw," Danielle pouted, adding to the confusion, "Box Lunch's not that bad, she actually rather neat."

"So says the Grim Reaper," Samuel muttered snidely.

"Hey, I don't make fun of your ghost friends; you don't make fun of mine."

"Keh," Samuel grunted.

"What's this?" Paulina's sultry accented voice was suddenly heard to say.

Turning their attention from the discussion at hand, they all looked at the attractive Latin teenager who had just picked up an object off the floor.

"Soup?" Paulina said as she unscrewed the cap.

"**No!**" Five voices shouted as the battered Thermos was opened.

A massive shadow rose from the opening, consolidating into the form of a ghost that radiated darkness causing Paulina to drop it in fearful shock.

He loomed in stature over the all, black cape flapping from his energy, physically built along massive lines, muscles on his chest and arms bulging, white hair flaming, skin ghostly green and eyes a burning red.

"Well who do we have here?" The ghost's dark voice rumbled, "My self, my cheese head archenemy, Sam, Tucker, Valerie and my old high school classmates—another blast from the past."

"We'd **love** to catch up," Danielle chirped as she and her brother clapped their hands onto evil Dan Phantom's shoulders, "But we haven't finished repairs yet."

The evil ghost looked in confusion between the two faces of the Phantoms.

"So… try again in a month." Danielle concluded brightly with a smile as the twins brought the Thermos down upon his head, the blue vortex that emerged with its activation sucking the dark ghost back into his prison.

Danny blinked in befuddled shock. It had almost killed him to trap Dan Phantom and yet the twins handled him like he was **nothing**! Vlad was right, what type of monsters for children **did** he have?

Danielle capped the Fenton appliance then turned to Paulina with the Thermos in hand.

"See this?" She said as she gestured like a sale's person trying to entice a buyer at the object, "This is evil incarnate Daddy from an alternate timeline. **No touchy**."

"Stupid Disney movie," Samuel muttered sotto voice.

"Ah, Danielle I see you found the Thermos," a deep voice that resonated with power said as a ghost emerged from the shadows. "And to the others, welcome to my domain, I am Clockwork, Master of Time."

Those who had not meet Clockwork previously all stared with agape expressions at the ghost that stood before them.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

"He's a child!" Valerie screeched in disbelief as she started at the almost toddler like ghost that floating before them. The ghost that everyone was scared of was a **kid?**

The purple clothed Old One drifted closer, clock staff in hand as red eyes flicking from person to person.

"Oh don't worry," Danny muttered, "He'll be an old man any second now."

Valerie and four other humans shot Phantom a strange look. What was he talking about?

"Ah, but you see for me time moves forwards, and backwards and oh…" Clockwork sighed as his form morphed, "Why am I bothering? None of you will remember this."

Five humans jumped at the ghost's transformation, staring at the middle-aged apparition that now hovered above them. Oh, **that** was what Phantom meant. Before they could assimilate the ghost's new appearance, he changed get again, becoming a decrypted old man.

"Weird," Dash muttered, eyeing the blue-skinned ghost.

"Yes, wonderful, ain't it?" Danielle said with a cheerful smile as she and her brother drifted towards a swirling portal. Flipping open their pouch flaps and withdrew a handful of glowing orbs and they tossed them into the portal and turned back to the others.

"What's that?" Tucker asked curiously, wondering also what the orbs have been.

"That—"

"I brought the cookies I'd promised," a woman's voiced called out as one of the doors along the wall opened, startling many. "Are you having a good day kids?"

The group of time travellers looked at the woman that stood before them carrying an auburn haired and violet-eyed toddler on her hip that was wearing a blue overalls and black t-shirt. The woman was incredible attractive, dressed in a black business skirt-suit and purple blouse that matched her violet eyes with strawberry-blonde hanging in a heavy braid down her back.

"Oh…" She said trailed off softly, her beautiful face showing her surprise as she blinks at the scene that greets her eyes.

"Whoa, hot," Danny muttered as he stared at the woman, oblivious to the glare both Sam and Paulina bestow upon him.

"Oh yeah man," Tucker agreed, resisting the urge to drool. A sentiment that was echoed by the other males in the group.

The woman blinks once more, then turns on her heel to face the Master of Time. "You erased my memories!"

"My dear Samantha, it was necessary to ensure that the time stream continuum remained uninterrupted." Clockwork said fondly.

"I can understand that—but still… " the woman grudging admitted as she turned back to the group of past teenagers and one adult halfa.

"Hello Danny," she greets softly looking at the young Phantom then moved her violet eyes to another.

Danny blinked. She **knew **him? When he'd visited the future before he'd been able to recognize Valerie but he didn't recognize** this** woman.

"Tucker," she nodded at the African-American, leaving him as confused as his friend Danny.

"Valerie," the ghost-hunter frowned suspiciously, was this woman a ghost or an overshadowed human?

"Kwan, Star," the football player and cheerleader were also surprised at the woman's knowledge of them, while their greeting was not as friendly, it was not cool either.

"Dash," her tone lost its friendliness and became frosty.

"Paulina," her voice was down right frigid.

"Vlad," while not as cold as the last two greetings, annoyance was evident.

The ones who had had their names listed off looked at Sam, who the woman was eyeing but had not greeted. Before Paulina could make a snide comment, the woman spoke again.

"Hello… myself."

The jaws of the teenagers of the group dropped as they looked between the Gothic girl they knew and the professional woman she became.

"You become that?" Paulina exclaimed in disbelief.

"Why isn't your hair black?" Dash question as he looked at Sam's black bob and the woman's strawberry-blonde braid.

"The Putnet Square, ever heard of that?" Samantha questioned dryly.

"Yeah, it's a method used in genetics for determining dominate and recessive genes," Tucker answered.

"You've seen my parents, does either of them have black hair?"

"Ah… no." Tucker said with sudden realization, Mr Manson had blonde hair whereas Mrs Manson was a red head.

"Exactly, it's genetically impossible for me to have natural black hair, what I had was an excellent hair dresser." Future Sam said with a smile.

"Why colour it in the first place?" Star asked puzzled.

Samantha moved her shoulders in a shrugging motion, shifting the auburn haired toddler she carried. "When I was younger as you know, I felt a great need to distinguish myself from my… parents. Once I left home for university however, there was no need to state my individuality in such a way so I let my hair return to its natural colour."

"Well it's great that you're reminiscing Mom," Danielle suddenly said, "But can we have those cookies now?"

"**Mom?**" Eight voices thundered in unison.

Danny and Sam looked at each other, looked at the ghostly twins, back at each other, then at the future Sam and the child she carried, to looking back at each other. Shit. They were **married**? And had **kids**?

Tucker snickered at the incredulous look on his two friends faces. This was actually less of a surprise then discovering that the twins were Danny's future children; there had always been something between the two.

"Oh pooh," Paulina pouted, "I don't get to marry Phantom."

"It wasn't only Dan you lost," Samantha said scathingly, "Your family has also undergone a reversal of fortune."

"What do you mean?" The Latino girl questioned in confusion.

"I'm the owner of Green Enterprises, a corporation that specialize in environmental cleanup." Samantha began.

"My dream job!" Sam exclaimed happily.

"Yep, that's you Sam," Danny muttered.

"Doesn't sound like you've changed much at all," Tucker added aside.

"When other businesses, such as Sanchez Corporation, and their practices don't comply with government requirements regarding the environment and its care, then I step in."

"Step in and do what?" Paulina questioned.

Samantha smile was quite… predatory. Presenting a conflicting image for a woman carrying a child, but it fit none the less. "Take over the company. But a hostile takeover usually requires that the existing board of directors be overturned and new members instated as well as other management changes. I'm sorry to say that head of the Sanchez Corporation, your father had to go Paulina as he did not support the new management's methods and practice requirements."

Paulina started in shock at the woman from the future before her. It was impossible. Her father couldn't lose his position. They could not be—be poor!

"Man, I always knew you were vindictive," Tucker muttered to Sam.

"I prefer to think of it as justice," Samantha responded crisply with a pleasant smile.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

"T.J.," Samantha turned her attention to the other Foley.

"Yes Mrs. Fen—"

"T.J.!" Two Phantoms roared.

"Oops!" T.J. exclaimed as he clamped his hands over his mouth, "I'm not suppose to say that."

"I'm going to have to phone your father about this little incident." Samantha said as she dug out a cell phone, eyeing the three children curiously.

"Why does everyone assume I'm the one at fault?" T.J. protested then cringed at the droll looks of those who knew him.

"T.J., you're the one who works with the gears, I'd have to say it's you who is the cause of this problem like so many others before this," Samantha said dryly as she punched in the number.

T.J. scuffs his foot against the flagstone, his expression of miserable dejection as he listened to the conversation between his father and his friend's mother.

"Don't fell so bad T.J.," Danielle attempted to console him, "At least the tower's still standing."

"Wait," Valerie said as she thought of a few things, looking at the two friends who stood to the other side of Ghost-Boy, "If you two still know each other in the future, and you Manson actually get together with Ghost-Boy—which by the way is just **twisted**—where's Fenton in the future? Are you still even friends?"

The three exchanged looks, how could they explain this?

"He colonel in the Air Force," Danielle piped up.

"What?" Danny exclaimed, looking owlishly at his future family.

"Yeah, he always said he wanted to be an astronaut but various incidents lead to him joining the air force instead and he's now a pilot for fighter jets." Danielle explained, knowing the double meaning behind Phantom's question.

"Huh," Valerie muttered, muddling though it. "How do you know that?"

"'Cause Mom's always said he looks hot in uniform!" Danielle giggled.

Sam and Danny both blushed, Sam embarrassed that she had made such a comment and Danny at having the comment directed towards him.

Valerie blinked. Well, that sort of answered her question. It was obvious that Fenton, Foley, and Manson were still friends but where and **how** did Phantom fit into the picture?

"Okay, thank you Tucker and see you this evening," Samantha said as the conversation concluded. Hitting the End button, she slipped the silver phone back into her pocked and then turned to Clockwork in an almost sly manner.

"Clockwork, I've got a meeting to attend shortly and won't be able to meet Tucker here. Would you watch over Jedidiah for me while I'm at my meeting?" Samantha said with seeming innocence as she shifted the toddler—Jed—over to her other hip.

"Samantha dear, do you recall what happened the last time you left him with me?" The Master of Time said urbanely.

"Yes," Samantha replied guilelessly.

"Do you remember who gave him his nickname?" Clockwork said in a patient manner.

"Of course, you did," Samantha answered with a pleasant smile as she set Jed onto the floor.

"And what did I call him?" Clockwork continued, eyeing the toddler as he crawled towards the group of teens.

"That Devil Fen-Phantom," Samantha responded in a naïve tone, correcting herself in the nick of time having realized what her eldest were trying to conceal from the past teens. The family's surname.

"Precisely. You can go to your meeting and take that Devil Child with you." Clockwork said crisply, then continued after a momentary pause, "Leave the cookies though."

Samantha smiled fondly at the ghost and gave a half-hearted shrug, not really expecting to be able to fob babysitting duties off but doing it mainly to annoy the Master of Time. She was still rather ticked about having her memories erased, for the greater good or not.

"I really don't see what's so dangerous about him," Danny commented as he eyed the three-year-old that had sat himself before him. Realizing that this was the infamous Jed the Phantom twins had spoken off and the one Clockwork spoke of now.

Those from the future rolled their eyes. Everyone said that upon meeting Jed, he just appeared too angelic to be the devilish trouble maker he was.

"Tuch!" Jed gurgled as he reached a chubby hand forward.

"'Tuch'?" Danny questioned, looking up at his future family.

"He means touch," Danielle translated.

Danny shrugged and did as the toddler bade him, bending over and held out his hand to the child. Jed eagerly leaned forward and wrapped his fingers around Danny's offered hand. The youngest Phantom contorted gleefully as ectoplasm energy surged from his fingers into Danny's body.

Danny screamed in surprise as his body arched. Foreign ectoplasm crashing though his system and then next instant Danny Phantom was—Danny Fenton.

"The Ghost-Boy? You're the Ghost-Boy?" Valerie ranted angrily, giving a death glare to her somewhat friend and known foe.

"Fenton? You're a freaking hero?" Dash exclaimed disbelievingly, the guy he beat up in school fought ghosts that could kill him?

"Phantom's actually the looser?" Paulina said wide-eyed, that couldn't be true. Phantom was a superhero, Fenton was a… was a… was nothing more then a looser.

"What are you?" Valerie raved, not understanding a single thing and finding it impossible to reconcile Phantom with Fenton in her mind. Phantom was an arrogant somewhat snarky ectoplasm entity who allowed no ghost or hunter to defeat him. Fenton was a reserved somewhat timid person who was bullied by all the members of the football team and 'cool set.'

"A halfa," Danny muttered a flush high on his cheekbones as he looked guiltily away from his classmates, tucking his hands into his jeans. Sam and Tucker shifting defensively closer to their friend.

"A halfa? A halfa brain Fentonio?" Dash shouted angrily, to mad too even move and slug Fenton like he wanted to.

"I hate that term," Samuel grumbled suddenly, distracting them momentarily from Danny's revealed identity.

"Yeah, could you get any more unimaginative then halfa? That's as bad as calling a bat Batty," Danielle exclaimed as she threw her hands up in their air. "Who coined it anyway?"

"That would be Vlad Plasmius," Clockwork said softly who had watched the events and interaction that had and was occurring within the group with keen interest.

Danielle turned on the dark halfa with a scowl, "Halfa, come on I know you're intelligent, couldn't you have done better then that?"

"He's intelligent, not imaginative." Samuel said dryly.

"Point," Danielle conceded.

"Fine," Valerie said as she glowered back to Fenton, "You're a halfa. What exactly is that and how the hell are you one?"

"A halfa is half human and half ghost and we're usually created when a ghost portal is started and we're caught within the activated ectoplasm energy."(1)

The plural reference alluded Valerie and the others for the moment as they thought about what Danny had just reluctantly told them.

"Like Spiderman?" Star commented with a great deal of insight, "Only you didn't get bit by a radioactive spider but zap by a ghost portal? Or would the Fantastic Four be a better analogy?"

"Like that," Danny agreed.

"How'd you become one of these halfa's then?" Valerie growled.

"When my parents first created the Fenton Ghost Portal, they plugged it in but hadn't turned it on. I did that from inside and thus my body got hit by the activating ectoplasm… it changed me as you now know."

"So what exactly happened then?"

"No sure," Danny admitted with a shrug, "Either I'm bonded to a pre-existing ectoplasm entity or my DNA was rearranged and I've become one. He'd be able to tell you more," he said with a nod in Plasmius's direction.

"Why's that?" Valerie asked suspiciously.

"He's what you could say the worlds leading expert on halfa's, after all he named them."

* * *

**Footnote**:

(1) An interesting point to ponder actually, in the theme song it said that Danny's 'molecules get rearranged', which one must assume means DNA. However in "What You Want" when Danny accidentally flew through the Fenton Dream-catcher Fenton and Phantom are physically separated even though immediately afterwards Phantom dives right back into Fenton and they re-merge. And then there's the little bit during "Ultimate Enemies" about one ripping out their ghost half…


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Vlad shifted under the sudden scrutiny. He uncomfortably cleared his throat and began, something telling him that if he did not he would soon have to deal with some very irate information seeking teenagers. Powerful though he was, not even he would willingly deal with a gang of teenagers set in mob mentality.

"It's a little of both actually. DNA testing proves that a halfa's former human DNA has been irrevocably altered but it is the basic molecular structure of the body that has been changed the most."

"Don't mutated chromosomes cause mental and physical defects in a person?" Tucker questioned.

"Customarily, but as they aren't human chromosomes but rather comprised of ectoplasm. In a way a halfa's ghost abilities are results of genetic adaptations, a form of evolution if you will." Plasmius agreed, "But it is also known that the ghost form of a halfa can be separated from his human form under certain circumstances, the ghost form will instantly return to its human form if nothing changes or damages it."

Danny was actually surprised that Vlad knew that. He himself had figured it out having experiencing the result when something did go wrong in the incident with his Evil Future Self.

After finishing his explanation Vlad looked uneasily at Samantha, who had been eyeing him speculatively ever since it had been revealed that he'd coined the term that described a human-ghost cross.

"Look Jedidiah," Samantha cooed to her son, violet eyes twinkling mischievously, "A man with a red cape, who is it?"

"'Uperman, 'Uperman!" Jed shouted ecstatically as he clapped his hands together.

"That's right, Superman." Samantha exclaimed warmly, "who wants to play with Superman?"

"'Uperman, 'Uperman!" Jed exclaimed as his head bobbed up and down.

"Go get him!" Samantha said cheerfully, sending the toddler gleefully scuttling across the floor, making a beeline for Plasmius.

Vlad looked disdainfully down upon the toddler as the child reached him. Really, he did not see what the big deal was—it was only a three-year-old. Bending down he picked up the youngest ghost-human cross and loftily arched a black brow at the auburn haired child.

Jed gurgled as he clapped chubby hands together with glee, then suddenly his face fell and twisted into a scowl having realized that this man was **not **Superman. Letting out a wailing cry he fisted his hands around the wrist that held him and unleashed a blast of ectoplasm upon the unsuspecting man.

Two blinks later and a white haired, blue eyed man wearing a business suit and a red tie was standing before them with a shocked expression on his face holding a now happy toddler.

"What the heck!" Valerie shouted, recognizing the man that had stayed with the Fenton's during Pariah's attack, his name was Vlad something, "How many halfa's are there?"

"I only know of two," Danny answered reluctantly, personally pleased with Plasmius's surprised face, he rarely saw such an expression on his rival's face and savoured the moments whenever they occurred.

Vlad Masters carefully set down the toddler and watched the boy scurry away. Deeply shaken by what had just occurred. Never, not even when he'd first been cursed by the blundering idiot had his control over his forms been taken from him. No ghost had ever possessed him nor had any been able to force him to assume either form. And here, this three year old child who was not even a pure human-ghost cross had achieved what he considered the impossible—forcing him to do something not of his own free will.

"There isn't only two!" Danielle exclaimed, looking at the form of her father from the past. "There's six!"

"No there isn't," Samuel argued.

"Yes there is," the eldest Phantom protested ticking of names on her fingers, "there is Mr. Masters, Daddy, me and you, Lilith, and Jed. That makes six."

"Yes there is, after all we're only one third human-ghost crosses, not one half crossbreeds." Samuel retorted. "Besides, in their time there** is** only two of them. We aren't born till later."

"True," Danielle finally conceded the point, "you're right, there is only two half-breeds."

"I don't really see what's so bad," Tucker drew the crowd's attention to himself where he was crouched down and a gurgling Jed who he was playing with.

"You've always gotten along with him," Samantha said with bemused amusement as Jed rolled gleefully about on the floor trying to avoid the techno wiz's tickling fingers.

The twins and their friend nodded in agreement, similar expressions of bemusement on their faces.

"Some things never change," Clockwork said softly, drawing thoughtful looks from the future Fentons and Foley Junior.

"No… some things don't seem to," Samantha agreed as she walked forward and scooped Jed up from the floor. "Come on Jedidiah it's time to go."

Jed gave a wailing pout but didn't fight his mother's hands as she settled him back onto her hip. Exchanging her goodbyes and wishing the past crowd successful lives Samantha handed a Tupperware container to Clockwork just as she began to depart.

"Remember, these are for everyone. If I hear you eat this batch on your own like the last one what Jedidiah did to your tower will be the least of your worries," the future Mrs. Samantha Fenton warned the Old One as she stepped through the door she'd entered through.

The teens snickered at the blush that coloured the Master of Time's face, even those from the past. They were all familiar with **that** tone of Mother's Voice and the consequences that disobeying reaped.

"So what now?" Danielle asked Clockwork who had placed the Tupperware onto a floating table that had materialized in the air.

"I am waiting for someone special to show up, but as she'd a very busy Old One and I expect that it will be some time before she shows." A child Clockwork answered calmly, cracking open the container and selecting a chocolate chip cookie.

"'Kay," Danielle said without interest as she transported over the cookies and shoed the Master of Time away. "Lets see, we've got raisin and oatmeal, plain oatmeal, peanut butter and chocolate chip, who wants what?"

"I'll have peanut butter," Star said softly, almost flinching under the glares her three popular peers directed at her.

"Good choice Star," Danielle chirped as she picked up the sweets and flew to the cheerleader. Taking a raisin and oatmeal for herself at the same time.

"You have no taste," Samuel muttered as he appeared beside his elder twin and selected a chocolate chip.

"I have great taste, I just don't like chocolate," Danielle said huffily.

"Exactly," the eldest Fenton boy muttered, earning himself a glare as he transported a safe distance away from his now irate sibling.

Practically all of the past teens blinked in surprise at the girl Phantom's revelation. How could you not like chocolate?

"May I have a raisin and oatmeal?" Sam asked politely. Okay, that answered their questioned apparently ultra recyclo-vegetarians did not eat chocolate either.

Distributing the cookies among the reaming teenagers who all selected chocolate for themselves, Vlad was the only one who declined the offer of the sweets. With a shrug Danielle returned the cookies to the table but kept a careful eye on how many Clockwork snatched for himself.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

"You mentioned that there are four of you," Valerie said tentatively after polishing off her cookie.

"Yep!" Danielle chirped pleasantly, "Us two, Jed, and Lilith! She's six's and at camp right now."

"Camp?" Eight voices gasped in disbelief, three coking briefly on a bite of their cookies.

"Yeah… what's wrong with that? Haven't any of you been at camp before?" Danielle asked curiously.

"Yes," Valerie admitted grudgingly, "but none of use are bizarre ghost human **things**."

"I resent that," Danielle said with a dismissing sniff, exchanging glares with the ghost-hunter.

"Its fine," Samuel grunted, "she's wearing a Fenton Bracelet. Besides, she's there with Vanessa."

"I wouldn't say my little sister is the most sane influence through," T.J. muttered.

"Sister? I have a daughter?" Tucker asked wide-eyed.

"Yeah, though I wish I was an only child," T.J. admitted. "Why'd you have to have two?"

Tucker was too flustered to answer, after all how **did **one answer a question like that?

"There are no worries anyway, Aunt Jazz will have everything covered," Danielle said with shrug, rejoining the discussion as cheerful as ever.

"Jazz?" Danny questioned, "What's she doing at a summer camp?"

"Volunteer work," Danielle smiled, "as well as some study or other that she's working on."

"You mentioned a Fenton Bracelet," Danny said as he backtracked, trying to figure out what they could be. After all his parents came up with some very strange stuff. "What does that do?"

"They block our ghost powers but the bracelets are different from the Spectre-Deflector which nullifies ghost abilities," Danielle explained, "our grandparents created them when they found out about us."

Sam eyed the girl Phantom with wary interest as the conversation continued. She could not believe that she had a daughter like this insanely cheerful girl. Heck even Danny—as weird as it was to think about it—was not like this. Moody Samuel seemed more like a child she would have.

"You mentioned grandparents…" Danny said slowly, "do they know?"

"Oh yes, they've both known for years now," Danielle chirped, looking at her father-to-be with some confusion.

Danny's brow furrowed in thought. They knew? Wait a sec, she had said **both**, did that mean the Fentons and the Mansons knew about Phantom? Or did she mean only that both his parents knew?

"Mom and Dad must just love you," Sam commented dryly.

"What ever for?" Danielle asked tilting her head to the side as she began to spin around in the air.

"For having a perky granddaughter," Sam answered blandly.

"Who does that mean?" Danielle questioned quizzically.

"Mom must have great fun shopping with you for floral print dresses."

Danielle blinked then her expression froze into one of pure horror as she stared at a sight only she could see within her torment mind. Curling into a fetal position in the air, she rocked back and forth whimpering. The staff she had been holding dropped to the stone floor with a clatter.

Instantly Samuel was by his sister's side, one rubbing smoothing circles upon her back as his other hand stroked her short cropped hair, his own staff joining his sister's on the ground.

"Sh, it's okay Danni," Samuel murmured soothingly, a strained expression on his face as he attempted to calm his twin.

"Floral prints, floral prints, floral prints," was the traumatized chant that could be heard from Danielle as she rocked herself in midair.

Sam and Danny and others exchanged strange and mostly uncomprehending looks among themselves.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked hesitantly, taking a half step towards her future child.

"Floral prints, floral prints, floral prints."

"Danni doesn't have what one would call the greatest relationship with Grandma Pam and even Grandpa Jeremy at the moment." Samuel answered, thinking of the disastrous shopping trip, his tone grimmer then when he addressed Danielle but still calm enough that his anger wouldn't disturb his sister.

"Floral prints, floral prints, floral prints."

"It's okay Danni," Samuel cooed as Danielle continued to rock, "There's none here. You're safe."

'_Okay…_' Sam though privately, '_reminder to self, perky does not always equal conformist._'

"Floral prints, floral prints, floral prints."

"Is that how our parents found out about the ghost abilities?" Danny questioned, worriedly eyeing the future girl Phantom as she flickered between ghost and reaper form, continuing to chant.

"Floral prints, floral prints, floral prints."

The only one who was not looking at the girl with some degree of concern was Vlad, who was rather bemused by what the Grim Reaper was doing. This was one of the most powerful ghosts in the Ghost-Zone and she was afraid of **floral prints?**

"Floral prints, floral prints, floral prints."

"No," Samuel answered distractedly, relieved to feel his sister's muscles being to relax under his stroking palm. "They leaned about it when Lilith was a couple days old."

"Floral prints, floral prints, floral prints."

Danny pondered the math, if the twins were about his age as they appeared to be and Lilith he'd been told was six, then that meant for eight years the ghost powers had remained a secret. So what had happened then? If they had managed to hide the twins ghost powers as infants, why hadn't they'd been able to hid Lilith's? "Why did they find out then?"

"One could say Lilith has a killer voice," Danielle said shakily as she raised her head from her knees, finally creasing her chant but still leaning heavily against her brother.

"What?" Multiple confused people questioned.

"She got the Ghostly Wail as an infant," Samuel explained dryly.

Danny's eyes bulged and he was incapable of speech, as where his two friends who also knew the devastation of that ghost attack.

"She—you mean—the **Wail**—!" Danny sputtered incoherently, blue eyes wider then ever and jaw nearly hitting the floor.

"As a baby!" Sam shouted thinking incredulously, '_Oh god, Vlad was right. What monsters do I and Danny have_?'

Tucker was too dumfounded to even say anything slightly coherent.

"Yeah, gota hate that," T.J. added cheekily, "Especially when all the grandparents are over to greet the new baby."

"You aren't serious," Danny whispered, he had nearly been dead from the combined attacks of future Ember, Box Ghost, Skulker and Technus, Ember, Johnny 13, and Kitty when he had developed that attack and what it had done to them…

"Took the roof right off, demolished most of the house," T.J. said cheerfully, "And almost wiped out the neighbourhood too."

Vlad frowned with curiosity, what was this 'Wail' that young Daniel was speaking of? It did not matter, he would learn of it in time and he was confident that he would be able to defend himself from it, after all Daniel had not even managed to duplicate his form yet.

"You're telling us an awful lot," Sam said suspiciously, eyeing the teenage threesome and the Old One.

"Oh don't worry, you won't remember a thing." Clockwork in his adult form said as he smiled soothingly at them.

"What?" Valerie yelped, looking suspiciously at the others herself now.

"Oh nothing," Clockwork answered blandly, morphing into an old man.

"Won't remember," Danny muttered, remembering an earlier comment made by the Master of Time and ghost lore that he was currently studying up on. "Memory… Mnemosyne(1)."

"Very good Danny," Clockwork murmured giving the halfling a proud smile. "You are learning much."

"Who? What? Memory?" Valerie said in confusion, her scorn of ghosts leading her to avoiding learning much about them beyond how to hunt them.

"Not what but who," Danny explained, "Mnemosyne, the Old One of Memory. She has the ability to remove memories from people with her touch if she wishes it."

"I'm amazed that you with your high school education know of her Daniel," Vlad said patronizingly as he flicked an invisible piece of lint from his jacket front.

"I do happen to do research when the lives of those I care for in constant danger," Danny said with a glare at the billionaire.

Valerie flushed and ducked her head, a motion that went unnoticed by all but the Master of Time. She suddenly found herself ashamed to say that she could not say the same thing, even though currently she was experiencing conflicting emotions towards Fenton-cum-Phantom. Her knowledge of ghosts, not just how to hunt them, could probably fit in a thimble. And from what she'd just heard and the powers these ghost called the Old Ones seemed to posses that was probably a **very **stupid thing.

* * *

**Footnote:**

(1) Mnemosyne: lit. 'memory'; in ancient Greek mythology a Titaness and the mother of the Muses by Zeus.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

"Is it safe to enter?" A masculine voice asked dryly, eyes of green looking speculatively at the scene before him. A black haired teenager of about fourteen years was glaring at an older, smirking white haired gentlemen dressed in an expensive Italian silk suit.

Their attention caught by the newcomer, the group turned to look at the brown-skinned man who stood in a doorway wearing a white lab coat, identity-revealing PDA in one hand. Tall and well built, giving testament that he did not spend all his time in front of a computer screen, he was an attractive man who currently had a black brow quirked quizzically at them all.

"That's me?" Tucker exclaimed in surprise, extremely pleased with how he turned out.

The man blinked in confusion, his green gaze moving among them before recognition dawned, blossoming on his face as he whirled towards Clockwork, glaring at the Old One.

"You—"

"Had your memories erased," Clockwork cut of the technical genius before he could begin his rant.

"Mnemosyne erased whose memories?" A deeper male voice, resonating with command rumbled from behind future Tucker.

"Ours," Tucker Senior said grimily as he stepped aside to let his friend enter Time Tower.

Dressed in a military uniform, his ranking badge of colonel upon his arm sleeves, he was an imposing sight. Also tall and didn't appear overtly muscular with eyes of intense blue and black hair that in his childhood had been an unruly mod was now cropped crew-cut short.

"Oh, I see," Dan Fenton said with amusement, taking in the scene before him with lighting quickness, his mind just as quickly shorting out what was going on as his own memories were returned. "So that's why when I first met Mnemosyne all those years ago she said it was nice to meet me again."

"You're not upset?" Tucker Senior gaped, momentarily switching his attention from the Old One.

"No," Dan moved his shoulders in a shrugging motion, "there's nothing to be upset about."

"I would be, learning that my mind had been messed with," Tucker Senior muttered darkly, turning back to glaring at Clockwork.

"Compared to other things," Dan replied nonchalantly, "it rates pretty low on my upset radar."

"It would—for **you**," Tucker Senior grumbled still glaring at the Master of Time.

Vlad arched an eyebrow at the discussion between the two adult friends. Daniel had indeed grown as he noted the changes with a critical eye. He was pleased to note that though Daniel was as tall as the idiot he did not have that stockiness and appeared to be built more like himself, though he could not be sure because of the military uniform. Future Daniel had an air of authoritative confidence and did not project the same impression as his younger, clumsier, and scrawnier self either. He would indeed make a fine son.

"We're here for a reason, remember?" Dan reminded his friend, looking at a messy pile of gears the dominated the center of the room.

"Oh yeah, alright T.J., what did you do this time?" Tucker Senior asked of his son as he reached into a cupboard and hauled out a toolbox. As he moved towards the pile, he passed the floating table and snatched a cookie from the container, dropping his PDA into one of his great white coat pockets.

T.J. turned to the mess he had created, understanding that his father was not asking what trouble he had created but how he had created it.

"I was applying oil to one of the main gears," T.J. began explained as the two Foley males set to work repairing what had been damaged.

Turning his attention from the two who were now industrially working, Dan quirked an eyebrow at his two eldest, a little bemused by the fact that Samuel was hovering protectively over Danielle was the floating in the air with their staffs on the ground beneath them.

"Flower paper," Samuel explained; the family's code for floral prints.

"And she didn't go reaper?" Dan asked in bemusement.

"I think she didn't because we we're here," Samuel hypothesized, dropping to the ground and picked up his staff. Straightening out of her curled up position, Danielle held out her hand commandingly as a soft glow enveloped her glove. Her staff raddled against the flagstones momentarily before lifting smoothly into the air and into her hand.

"Ah," Dan said wisely shifting his attention to the rest of the group, looking with interest at the people from his past. "It's interesting to meet you all, even if you won't remembering anything."

"But we're you and why are you remembering this then?" Danny protested.

"It is Mnemosyne's decision on how to erase your memories of this incident," Clockwork answered, "her powers are fluid and just because she 'erases' a memory does not always mean that it's gone for ever."

Danny muddled through that, still slightly taken aback by the appearance of his future self—as well as wary. Evil Phantom was something to make anyone worried and when you find out that you would become that… well, he had grown mighty cautious when dealing with the Old One of Time.

Sam eyed future Danny with quite appreciation as he conversed with his past self. Though she had never admitted it to her two friends, she did at times admire a guy's figure. She was quite pleased to note that Danny wasn't as stocky as his father nor did he have that over muscled appearance of Evil Phantom and though she could not tell because of his uniform exactly how he was built, he appeared to have quite an attractive body when grown.

"Have to admit," Valerie muttered aside to Sam, "you've got good taste if that's how Fenton turns out."

Sam looked strangely at the black haired girl, "I though you hate him now that you've found out that he's Phantom."

Valerie grimaced, but did not look away from the Gothic girl's pinning violet gaze and muttered. "I still haven't quite got that—that Danny's the Ghost-Boy."

"What's not to get?" Sam almost hissed, eyes narrowing.

"I know it," Valerie muttered defensively. "It just hasn't really sunk in."

Sam nodded thoughtfully, still hostile but accepting of the ghost-hunter's answer.

"How'd you find out?" Valerie muttered curiously, maybe learning how the Goth had handled it would help her, just because she did not like the vegetarian did not mean she could not learn from her experience.

"I'm the reason he's a halfa, twice none the less," Sam snorted softly, eyes going unfocused with memory.

Valerie blinked—well that was not what she had been expecting. '_Sam's the reason Danny's a ghost_?' She though incredulously, '_how the hell did __**that**__ happen_?'

"How'd that come about?" Valerie questioned in a more sensible tone of voice, barely coping with the shock.

It was Sam's turn to grimace, "Long story best explained without so many eager ears."

Valerie blinked again and then looked at the two that Sam as alluding to, ah yes, the cheerleaders, she had forgotten about them. It was bad enough that they knew Ghost-Boy's identity, they would been blabbing it all over school and—wait a minute, was she worried about the Ghost-Boy?

No that could not be… he was a** ghost** for heaven's sake! But what about Danny, he was her friend… that couldn't be right though, he was a ghost, or was the ghost Danny? '_Argh! It's just all too confusing_,' Valerie though with a snarl, '_maybe I should be glad this Mnemosyne is going to remove my memories of this_.'

"**Look out**!" Two male voices shouted.

Sam and Valerie looked up and found themselves frozen at the sight of a massive gear sailing through the air—right at them.

"**Move**!" More voices shouted gallivanting the two girls into action moments too late.

A large black and silver figure inserted itself between the metal disk and two females, hands glowing as a green ectoplasm shield bubble encased the careening object and halting it in midair.

Released of their paralyse Sam and Valerie blinked and looked agape at the person before them. Lean muscles, strong enough to withstand the gravity force of fighter jets doing mach three were clearly defined by the skintight hazmat suit they rippled beneath. The two girls had a pretty good idea suddenly at what future Danny looked like without his clothes.

"I take that back," Valerie croaked, "You've got **excellent** taste in men."

All Sam could do was nod dumbfounded, his air force uniform had given** no **indication that he looked like this! He had been hot before, but now he was downright drool worthy.

"You okay?" Dan Phantom asked as he turned to the two girls with concern, glowing green eyes and flaming white hair creating a striking contrast and accenting an incredibly handsome face.

"Sure," Sam's voice was faint as she stared up at him, her face still mirroring her shock. He looked even better from the front then from behind!

"Yeah," Valerie's voice was also faint, her eyes also locked on him, "just peachy."

Suddenly the two girls looked at each other and in a rare moment of communication between them they grinned impishly. It was however a look that was quite common among their future selves and one Dan recognised with wary familiarity.

"Good to hear that," he said suddenly nervous, beating a hasty retreat by grabbing the gear and flying it towards where Tucker and T.J. where waiting for it, "I'll just deal with this."

Valerie giggled as Sam smirked. Well it seemed that they, or teenage girls anyway, still had the ability to fluster Danny, adult or not. Clockwork was right, apparently some things never changed.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Star had watched the arrivals of the future Fenton family and Foley with fascinated interest, this was so cool, but it was too bad that apparently none of them would remember this. Who could have guessed that Fenton and Foley would turn out so handsome? And then when future Danny had transformed into Phantom… drool, he was just so **hot**!

But what was to happen now? Future Foley and his cute son, T.J. had just apparently finished repairing what ever had to be fixed and that cute ghost Samuel was conversing with the shape-shifting ghost along with his sister, who was also rather interesting to watch because of her silliness… even if they both did turn into creepy reapers.

When was the memory ghost—what was her name—going to show? Was that when all of this fun stuff was going to end? She had to admit, she much preferred** this** trip into the Ghost-Zone then the one when Amity Park had been taken over by those skeleton ghosts and wanted to stay longer.

Casting glances at her peers, she had to suppress her snicker of amusement at their expressions, green eyes twinkling. Though many would claim that Paulina's face showed no expression, and was as smoothly beautiful as ever the lead cheerleader was having a difficult time coping with everything. '_It must have been quite a shock_,' she though sympathetically, '_to find out that the guy you've toyed with is actually the one who you've been desperate to date_!'

'_Dash isn't faring much better_!' Star almost shook her head at the quarterback's blankly stunned expression, '_One would have though that all the times he's beat up Fenton he would have noticed that Fenton was getting hard to bully. But then again he isn't really observant of what goes on unless it pertains to football_.'

Kwan she decided was handling things much better then his team mate and Paulina, looking more puzzled then dumbfounded. '_Then again, his grandmother is the most superstitious person I've ever meant_,' she though to herself, '_and I know he also subscribed to _Paranormal Digest. _That reminds me, he told me the Fenton's had had another article in it, I'll have to check it out._'

Though Star knew that many of the adults and most of the world scorned the Fenton's and stuff like the _Paranormal Digest_, all the kids at school were **firm**, very **firm**, believers in ghosts and if they didn't subscribe to some paranormal magazine or other, one of their friends did. They also all knew that the only way the magazine was to be trusted if it had at least one article written by the Fenton's per issue. Danny's parents may be crazy according to all** their** parents, but they knew their stuff.

"This doesn't make any sense," Kwan muttered, muddling though the dilemma that was currently facing him—Fenton's existence.

"What doesn't?" Star questioned curiously, knowing that though Kwan was what others would call 'thick-headed' in a very derogatory way, if he could related the new to the familiar he was remarkably adaptable.

"The Fentons's new article, it says that ghost-human crosses aren't possible," Kwan explained with a frown.

"What do you mean? Cross species are possible, just think of horses and donkeys, you get mules from them. Then there are the big cat crosses, tigons, ligers, jaguleps, lepjags, marozi—"

"I know that!" Kwan scowled cutting off Star's list. "But ghost and humans are different. The Fentons' said that it isn't possible because our energies are different and they can't be successfully bonded to create something new."

Star frowned, trying to fill in the bits that she was missing; wishing that she had had the chance to read this new article he was talking about.

"It's something about ectoplasm being a denser bio-energy then the human electrical energy," Kwan explained, "and how the two forms are incompatible. The denser ectoplasm can't be transmitted through the human nerve system thus it disrupts a human's normal functions resulting in death—even if the initial shock from the ectoplasm blast required for such a transformation doesn't kill them out right."

Star blinked in puzzlement then questioned quizzically remembering her own experience being overshadowed, "If human bodies can't handle ectoplasm, then how come ghosts can possesses us?"

Kwan's frown deepened, thinking harder on other articles especially ones that the Fenton's had written about possession.

"When a ghost overshadows a human, they reduce their power to a trickle of their previous level, thinning the ectoplasm to a level of energy similar to electricity." Clockwork supplied the answer as he drifted by while polishing off another cookie.

The two looked warily at the ghost who had joined their conversation, eager to learn more but greatly hesitant because of multiple bad experiences with ghosts attacking their home.

"That's one of the reasons that when after a possession a human experiences feelings of dizziness and disorientation. It is the consequence of the ghost exercising ghostly abilities such as levitation and lesser ecto-blasts. Though the human body is capable of performing those feats because of the ectoplasm, they aren't natural abilities and the human body doesn't operate at peak efficiency."

"Is that why when possessed by ghosts, the possessed people don't really do much?" Kwan questioned curiously. "Our bodies can't handle the ectoplasm energy?"

"That is correct, and if great manifestations of power is attempted it results in death for the host human."

Kwan nodded, the Fentons' had said basically the same thing, the increase of power couldn't be handled.

"Then… how do you explain them?" Dash questioned, join the conversation and jerking his head towards the original halfas.

Clockwork looked at Danny and Vlad, debating how much to reveal as it would only make more work for Mnemosyne. "In essence they are bonded to the very fabric of this realm."

Three blank faces looked at the Old One.

"Upon their… birth shall we say, they were bonded with a preexisting ectoplasm entity." At their nod of understanding, the Master of Time continued. "That 'entity' was the Ghost-Zone itself."

"What about the Ghost-Zone?" Danielle chirped as she floated over to them.

"I was attempting to explain how halfa's came to be." Clockwork explained to the girl Phantom.

She giggled, "We are born of the very fabric of the Ghost-Zone, linked to it until death. Our strengths come from it and out abilities are unlimited because of it."

Star, Kwan, and Dash frowned in confusion. They sort of got the part about the Ghost-Zone realm itself being the reason for the halfa's existence, but what the heck about strengths and abilities was Danielle blabbing about?

"I think you just confused them even more little one," Clockwork said with amusement to the eldest twin.

Danielle gave an unrepentant shrug before drifting back to join her brother.

"To clarify," Clockwork continued his explanation, "though initially a halfa is bonded with a 'bit' of the energy from the Ghost-Zone that 'bit' mutates into something separate. The end mutation is the complete halfa, who have their own individual abilities and strengths that aren't limited to something related to a normal ghost's Trigger. But a link remains, giving the halfa a degree of access to the energy of the Ghost-Zone."

The three muddled over it all. Trying to sort it out in relation to what they already knew. Dash was mentally wishing that he had not followed Fenton into his family's lab. All this stuff was starting to **really** make his head hurt.

* * *

**Footnote**:

The aforementioned theories are purely theoretical and my personal attempt to understand that which governs the dynamics of creating a human-ghost cross. As various events within the show tend to counter themselves, I will once again state that this is my own personal interpretation at this point in time, more events as the show progresses will most likely change my analysis of the subject.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

"That clock… why is it running backwards?" Paulina's accented voice questioned unexpectedly in bemusement, disrupting the other conversations as everyone's attention was shifted to the Grandfather Clock the Latino girl was pointing at.

A massive thing of rich mahogany, the clock hands were indeed running counter clockwise. Notice was taken suddenly of the other clocks that were adorning the walls and floating about in the air above them.

Some of the clock faces were blank, while other had scenes playing within. There were clocks that had more then three hands representing the hour, minute, and second while yet others had none. There were even half clocks and clocks that slowly inverted themselves back and forth.

"Just as time flows backwards and forwards, it also does not flow at all. Particularly here." Clockwork stated enigmatically.

The eight teenagers and one adult from the past looked at the Master of Time strangely.

"Time is not linear as is the European view, where we work from life to death. Nor is it like the Egyptian way, flowing from death to life." Samuel stated, almost as enigmatically as Clockwork.

"Huh?" Multiple voices questioned, not understanding the reference to Egyptian time.

"Oh, I don't suppose you're familiar with how the ancient Egyptian's viewed the time of the living." Samuel grumbled.

"Is it circular then?" Star questioned, familiar with Native American and Oriental views of time flowing in an unending circle.

"No, time is neither linear nor circular here." Danielle said, figuring to sidestep the Egyptian thing, it was a little complicated anyway.

"But that's not possible," Valerie shook her head in confusion. "What way does it flow then?"

"As Master Clockwork said," Samuel shrugged, "time does not 'flow' within this realm. All the rules that you apply to how time operates crease to exist. Things that are in your past can be in our future, and incidents that are in our future are in your past."

"Why do you think we were the reapers sent after Hitler?" Danielle asked rhetorically. "We are not the only reapers in existence—there are others such as the Old Ones Hermes(1) and Thanatos(2). The reason that we were the ones was because World War II had not occurred yet in this domain, though for you it was something that had happened long in the past."

Danny shook his head. "This is just all too confusing."

Dan smirked at his younger self, "It gets worse."

A groan from his past self was the future colonel's response.

"Ah…" Clockwork breathed suddenly, turning his back upon the group as he turned towards the greenly swirling portal that the twins had tossed glowing orbs into not long after his appearance before those from the past.

The colour of the energy changed before their eyes, from an eerie green to an equally eerie blue and a misty shape began to seep from it. A cloud of fog drifted though and the moment the last tendril of mist had condensed on this side the portal changed green once again.

"Mnemosyne, welcome to my domain," Clockwork greeted courteously as he inclined his head at the shapeless mass, the Phantom twins followed their overlord, only they bowed from the waist.

"Clockwork," a misty voice greeted softly, the fog slowly condensing into the form of a frail elderly woman wearing a garment of the ancient Greeks, leaning heavily upon a staff as she remained transparent, like a White Lady. "It is as lovely as always to see you. I understand you have wish of my services. Tell me, how may I serve Time?"

"I desire for you to remove the memories of these individuals," Clockwork indicated the time travelling group.

"Ah…" Mnemosyne said her voice a mere whisper, as she looked upon them, "so they have arrived."

The Spirit of Memory drifted forward drawing to a halt to hover slightly above the ground before the group.

"Is… is this going to hurt?" Star asked hesitantly.

"No little one," Mnemosyne replied with a grandmotherly smile towards the blonde. "You will merely remember nothing and what you cannot remember does not hurt."

Star blinked, almost philosophical, but true none the less.

"Young ones, please do not be afraid," Mnemosyne soothed, "now would you form a circle around me?"

They all hesitated until taking a fortifying breath both Danny and Sam stepped forward. The two exchanged looks before walking forward, soon followed by the other teens as they formed a lose circle around the Mistress of Memory.

Fifteen pairs of eyes swung about to look at the other halfa and only adult from the past.

"You are not erasing my memories," Vlad stared imperiously as he looked down his nose at the wispy figure of the Old One of Memory.

"Oh?" One colourless brow rose at the billionaire, suddenly her misty form swirled before solidifying. A young woman now stood in the old woman's place, her skin a luminous bronze, flaming white hair, and blue eyes that glowed with power.

They started in reaction, totally taken off guard by the vibrant and powerful ghost that now stood before them.

"Really," Mnemosyne practically purred as she looked at the man with narrowed eyes. "Children… would you please… ah, thank you."

Two Grim Reapers now loomed over the resistant man. The green light cast by their scythes absorbed by the utter blackness of their cowls, yellow eyes glowing harshly from the depths of their hoods.

"That was not a request," the one on Vlad's right whispered in a voice that chilled the bone.

"It was an order," the second one stated, its voice sending fearful shivered down the spine.

Gulping, Vlad steeped forward, flinching not only from the occasionally icy brush of the Reapers's robes, but the blunt end of their scythe's shafts as he was prodded to join the circle.

A small smile tilted Mnemosyne's lips as she gazed upon the two Reapers as they backed away after forcing the older halfa into place. Her eyes where dismissing though when she looked at him, he would present no trouble to her abilities.

Her smile widening into one of true satisfaction her arms flew upwards, her power flaring out and sizing them all within its grasp, freezing them in place. Bronze arms lowered as a glowing emblem spread out on the floor beneath the ghost and the ones captive to her power.

"Sleep." It was a voice of command.

Danny instinctively struggled against it, feeling the sudden weariness grab him and begin to drag him into the blackness of unconsciousness.

"Sleep young Daniel," Mnemosyne murmured appearing before him and pressing her index finger against his brow. "Sleep."

Blue eyes finally closed as sigh escaping from his lips as he succumbed to the spell and slipped into the realm of sleep.

"You are strong young one," Mnemosyne murmured in approval as she lifted her finger away, leaving an emblem that glowed with a blue-white light upon his skin.

She looked at the sleeping others, identical emblems glowing upon their foreheads. Only the young hafla had required her personal touch. She smiled softly again, it was as she had known. His mind was strong and he would be great.

She turned back to Time and his two Reapers. "It is done. They can be returned to their own place in time now."

* * *

**Footnotes**:

(1) Hermes: in ancient Greek mythology he was Zeus's messenger, the guide of shades (souls of the departed) to Hades' House i.e. the Underworld, protector of travellers, bringer of luck, and patron deity of thieves and merchants.  
(2) Thanatos: the personification of Death in ancient Greek mythology.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

As the explosion rocked the house, Jazz thudded up against one of the kitchen walls, a giant flash of light bursting from the open lab door. The ghost alarm fell silent, the sensors burned out as an eerie silence fell.

'_What is going on down there?_' Jazz thought incredulously, frantically searching her mind for any weapons downstairs that could possible explain what had just happened. The only thing that she could remotely think of was the Ghost-Portal's ecto-filter, but not only had Danny changed it yesterday, but it going off would have wiped them off the face of the planet—not just rattled the foundations of the house.

Straightening herself and thanking all the gods in the heavens that her parents were not home, Jazz began to descend the steps to the lab, unnerved by the absence of noise. Reaching the bottom of the flight, she looked disbelievingly at the sight before her.

Nothing was broken. Absolutely nothing. It didn't even really look like any of the beakers had been moved. But that paled in comparison to what dominate the scene.

Jazz walked forward, dumbfounded by what greeted her eyes.

The unconscious forms of Danny, Sam, Tucker, Valerie, Dash, Paulina, Kwan, and Star.

Laying sprawled in lose limbed heaps across the laboratory floor, the only one that looked physically harmed was her brother, and those injuries she suspected had come from fighting the ghost that had initially triggered the alarm system. Not from whatever it was that had rendered them unconscious.

A flicker of movement by the portal caught her eye, whipping out the Fenton Peeler she whirled to face what had moved. Two silhouettes were within the swirling light of the portal. One raised its hand then they both faded from view.

'_D-did it just __**wave**__ at me?_' Jazz blinked and though incredulously as she placed her thumb onto the Fenton Genetic Lock to close the portal. Setting the Fenton Peeler aside onto the portal's console, she turned her attention back to the teens lying upon the ground.

"Now what am I suppose to do?" She asked aloud, eyeing the muscular forms of the football players in particular. "There's no way I can move you guys out of here on my own."

Stepping over Kwan, she rolled Danny off Sam, rather amused at how the two had ended up.

Jazz blinked as something pulsed upon her brother's forehead. Brushing aside Danny's black bangs, she frowned at the unfamiliar symbol she saw there. She laid a cautious finger against it. Nothing happened. She rubbed her thumb against it to see if it could be removed. Nothing happened. It just continued to pulse with an irregular blue-white light.

Her frown deepening she glanced at the others and noted that they too bore the strange Greek symbol upon there foreheads. As she watched Paulina's gave one last little pulse and faded away, leavening nothing behind.

She looked back at Danny, his was much stronger compared to the others and though its light was dimming it was nowhere near the fading away stage of the others.

"What happened to you Danny? What happened to you all?" Jazz questioned aloud once again. Jazz sighed as she looked back at the others; there was only one option for getting them home. She would have to call their parents. She sighed again. "Yeah, like this is going to go over well."

. . .

Jazz sat upon a chair as she rested her elbows upon the edge of Danny's bed, her chin resting upon her laced fingers, watching the sleeping face of her brother.

He had not wakened when she had carried him to his room nor had he roused since. And that worried her greatly, usually no matter how hard the hit was Danny could usually shake it off pretty quickly. What also worried her was that none of the other teens had waken when there parents had arrived to carry them home after her call and mostly truthful explanation that there had been an explosion in the lab.

Jazz grimaced—it had **not** been fun dealing with the parents at all. Especially Sam's, it seems the Mansons still had not gotten over the Circus Gothica thing.

She shifted her attention back to Danny, not surprised to see the slight bruising and scrapes that he's acquired from somewhere were almost fully healed. The accident hadn't just given him powers.

"No, it hasn't just been getting powers that have changed you Danny." Jazz mustered sadly, brushing her fingers against his face, feeling the inhumanly cool skin against her own, "Your temperature is colder now and physically you've gotten stronger, faster. I also don't want to think of how many times you've come home bruised and beaten up, yet are healed by morning…. But it isn't just your physical body that's changed, but yourself as well."

She fell silent for a moment, knowing that that was true.

"It is nearly impossible to sneak up on you anymore, even when you're sleeping. And then there is the other little things, liking pulling others out of danger before anyone, yourself included Danny, even knew they were at risk. In fact, it **is** impossible to sneak up on you now, and I know that… that you don't act like a teen anymore." She continued talking, knowing from previous experiences that her voice was the reassuring factor for his trigger sensitive instincts, not her physical presence.

"Yeah it's me, categorizing your psyche again. From what I've read, you react now to things like any…" Jazz paused as she searched for an appropriate term, "Trained combatant would, instinctively aware of your surroundings, constantly scoping things out and though you don't have that 'superhero mentality' yet, where you don't worry about ordinary things like the football players at school bullying you, you are getting there."

"J-Jazz?" Danny croaked faintly.

Jazz blinked and shifted her attention from her dialogue back to her brother. "Welcome back Danny, I'm glad you're finally awake, I was worried."

Danny blinked to clear his fuzzy vision, trying desperately to recall how he had ended up in his bed with Jazz beside him and no one else. All he could remember though was working on the History project then fighting the ghost followed by a brilliant flash of light from the Ghost Portal then nothing.

"W-what happened?" He finally asked hazily.

Jazz cocked an auburn eyebrow at him, "I was hoping that you could tell me that."

Danny struggled but his mind remained blank, he shrugged helplessly, "Sorry, don't remember nothing."

"Humph, you probably hit your head then," Jazz said as she sat back into the chair, knowing that after someone was knocked out they rarely remember the moments leading up to the moment of unconsciousness.

"Do you remember getting that though?" She asked, flicking her fingers at the fading mark on his forehead.

"Getting what?" Danny questioned in confusion, raising his hand to his head but feeling nothing.

Jazz reached over and picked up the hand-mirror that she had brought from her room after she'd settled Danny into his bed and held it up before her brother's face.

Danny blinked at the blue-white glow faintly seen beneath his bangs. Brushing the black locks aside he studied the faint alien symbol. As he watched the mark pulsed twice before fading away to nothing.

He raised his eyes to his sister's, his puzzlement obvious. Something **had** happened. But for the life of him he could not remember a thing.

. . .

Seven pairs of eyes watching the viewing portal, blinking at the final scene that had just been enacted after the time stream had been restored.

"Oops." A green eyed female mouthed.

"Heh. Forgot about that." An Old One said rather unrepentantly.

"So that's what the symbol was!"

"Yes," an Old One said in amusement, "That's what that symbol was, and that's what happened."

"Is there anything else that I should be reminded of?"

"No," was the Master of Time's reply.

"Thank God, come on, it's time to get home, Samantha will only keep supper warm for so long."

The two Old Ones watched as the three halfas and two humans departed. A smile curved a childish blue face as the door shut.

"At least—not at this time."

_**The End… (Perhaps)**_


End file.
